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THE EARL BISHOP 





Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, fourth Earl of Bristol. Bust of Mecenas. 
By Angelica Kauffmann. Painted in Rome, 1790. Portrait at Downhill: 


(Frontispiece, Vol. II. 






THE EARL BIS OP” 


The Life of Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, Ear) esi sen y 
By William S. Childe-Pemberton Author of 
“Baroness de Bode,” ‘Life of Lord Norton,” ‘Elizabeth 
Blount and Henry VIII.” etc. ete. 32: | 





With 45 Illustrations 


VOL. I. 


NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 
681, FIFTH AVENUE 


Printed in Great Britain 


Pole Lainie Eo hee Wy cabs Bec TUL GIN 


VU rh 

Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry, fourth Earl of Bristol. Bust 

of Mecenas Frontispiece 
Elizabeth Christian, Duchess of Devonshire, second daughter of 

fourth Earlof Bristol . : : , ; . Facing p. 368 
John Augustus, Lord Hervey, son of fourth Earl of Bristol . is 396 
Rev. Sir Henry Hervey-Aston Bruce p : . 398 
Letitia, Lady Bruce, daughter of Rev. Dr. Laue Barnard . ¥ 398 
Frideswide (sister of Sir H. Hervey-Aston Bruce) Us 400 
Frederick Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol. Vesuvius in back- 

ground . 3 416 
Ickworth, 1828 a 448 
Louisa Theodosia, Countess of Liverpool, third daughter of 

fourth Earl of Bristol : : ; Tasty 482 
Frederick Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry, 

1794-95. Plan of Ickworth in hand. Bay of Naples and 

Vesuvius in distance Bs 494 
Fourth Earl of Bristol » 494 
Ickworth (north front) 9 504 
Frederick William Hervey, first Marquess of Bristol . us 510 
Ickworth Lodge (south front), 1861 iN 560 
Ickworth (north side) i) 578 
Facsimile page of letter . % 584 
Ickworth (south side) f 648 


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THE EARL BISHOP 


VOL. II 


CHAPTER XXXIII 


LLUSION has already been made to a scandal which now 
attacked the Bishop’s private character. As the Irish 

newspapers gave currency to it simultaneously with their 
reports of the political events in which the Bishop was so con- 
spicuously figuring, our attention is turned to it here before we 
proceed with the incidents of the Bishop’s public career. 

Whether it was merely the calumny of political enemies 
such as frequently assails prominent statesmen, readers can 
judge for themselves. Although some may adhere to the adage 
that there is never smoke without fire, this particular charge does 
not rest upon any reliable evidence. But it must be admitted 
that while no scandal besmirched the Bishop in his earlier years, 
as he advanced in age his name was associated with stories of 
gallantry. Certainly a good deal of pitch was thrown at him 
which stuck, and his general behaviour was so imprudent and 
so unbecoming a prelate of the Established Church, that it 
laid him open to aspersion. It may be mentioned in his favour, 
however, that the most distinguished among his successors in 
the See of Derry, the late Primate Alexander, was of opinion 
that Bishop Hervey was “ not so black as he was painted.” 

The ugly charge was first circulated in December, 1783, 
soon after the Bishop had left Dublin and betaken himself to 
Downhill on the conclusion of the Volunteer Convention. A 
letter appeared in the Freeman's Journal making oppro- 
brious allusion to the Bishop’s alleged misconduct with regard 
to Mrs. Mussenden. The writer concealed his name under the 
designation ‘‘ Scaevola,’’ while of course he did not actually 
state the Bishop’s name. 

Before producing the answer to this charge, some outline 

VOL. It. | 


334 The Earl Bishop 


is requisite of the antecedents and circumstances of Mrs. Mus- 
senden. Of her youth, beauty, and merits mention has already 
been made; also of the Temple at Downhill which at this 
very time the Bishop erected in her honour. 

Mrs. Mussenden, who was now not more than twenty—she 

was perhaps younger—was Frideswide, only daughter of Mr. 
James Bruce, of Killyleagh, County Down. Born in 1720, he 
was the son of Patrick Bruce, a Presbyterian Minister, and de- 
scended from an Irish branch of the Scottish Bruces of Sten- 
house. A warm friend of the Bishop, Mr. Bruce had died in 
June of this year 1783 ; he was dying at the time of the Bishop’s 
visit to Larchfield a few months earlier. Her mother, who 
was Henrietta, daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Henry Hervey- 
Aston, the Bishop’s uncle, had died when Frideswide was a 
little child. The Bishop took an affectionate interest in the 
three children of his cousin Mrs. Bruce, it has been called a 
paternal interest. Of these the two sons were younger than their 
sister. The elder, Henry Hervey Bruce, will figure prominently 
in our later pages as superintendent of the Bishop’s affairs 
in Ireland, spiritual and temporal ; and he eventually succeeded 
under the Bishop’s will to the whole of his Irish property. 
_ Frideswide Bruce married in 1781 Daniel Mussenden, 
Esquire, of Larchfield, County Down, whose forbears were 
wealthy merchants at Belfast, and she had now been married two 
years. 

A brief but damnifying allusion to this scandal is to be 
found in Lord Charlemont’s Memoirs. Always hostile to the 
Bishop, Charlemont in making general charges of immorality 
against him states that “his ardent though ineffectual solici- 
tations of the lovely Mrs. M. are well known.” Thus, by 
the word “ineffectual’’ the lady’s character is cleared and 
the more so as Charlemont testifies to her virtue. It now 
remains to clear the character of the Bishop with regard to this 
charge, and the best refutation of it appears in the fact that 
this virtuous young woman remained on terms of affectionate 
association with her elderly kinsman up to the time of her 
death. This point is well elicited in the following letter from 
‘““An Inhabitant of Lisburne’”’ which appeared in the Volunteer 
Evening Post in answer to the attack in the Freeman’s Journal : 


‘““ Lisburne, 
‘Deo! 24) trae 
“ To Scaevola, 
“I never heard of your letter until yesterday. I 
am an inhabitant of Lisburne, and live in the neighbourhood of 


The Earl Bishop 335 


the scene you suppose to have been acted: Good God! Is 
it possible for an honest man to assert without evidence a fact 
which, with evidence, ought to expel the culprit from all human 
society ? I know the nobleman to whom you allude; I have 
sometimes seen him at Mr. M—-—’s where he passed many a week 
at the earnest wish of a dying relation, who valued and loved 
him beyond any person of his acquaintance. 

“ Indeed there is in this country but one opinion concerning 
that nobleman—that he is the most accomplished gentleman, 
the most learned scholar, the warmest friend, the most chari- 
table prelate, the most liberal ecclesiastic, and the most humane 
man we have ever seen—With regard to your imputation on 
him, it seems to lie in a very small compass ; either the lady, 
whom you suppose him base enough to seduce, corresponded 
with his love, or she did not. If she did, how came you to know 
what nobody heard or believes of a most virtuous, chaste, and 
innocent lady ? If she did not—then, she herself may hold 
this relation and seducer in the utmost abhorrence. Now, it 
is well known here, and in this neighbourhood, that she holds 
him in the utmost esteem, reverence and affection, that she 
scarce can speak of him without tears in her eyes, that his 
portrait is still in the best room of her house, that her husband 
allows her still to receive such presents from her noble relation 
(which by the bye is no less than a first cousin once removed) 
as suits the generosity of his mind, and the tenderness of his 
affection ; that every relation, both of her and her husband, 
holds this nobleman in the highest esteem, & lives in a constant 
correspondence with him—that in this country, rich & poor, 
high & low, papist & dissenter, respect him as a man, & love 
him as a father, that nothing but the intemperance of Mr. M——, 
(Mr. Mussenden) in a matter which had no relation to his wife, 
but related merely to a volume of Cicero’s Epistles, could have 
produced a variance between him & a man whom we have all 
heard him perfectly idolize: for my part I shall ever love and 
respect him, for his numberless acts of beneficence to this 
country ; norcan I ever believe, that a man, who spent hundreds 
here to relieve those whom he had mot seen, would injure his 
brother whom he had seen. 

“An Inhabitant of Lisburne.”’ 


While it would seem that the Bishop thought it incumbent 
on him to take some steps to vindicate his honour, the law 
offered little or no redress against such aspersion in the public 
prints as was veiled by innuendo and protected by anonymity. 
The Dublin Evening Post of January 20, 1784, announced: 

VOL. Il. ‘by 


336 The Earl Bishop 


“We can inform the public upon most unquestionable 
authority that the following animated answer to Scaevola’s 
detestable attack ona most respectable character was earnestly 
and repeatedly offered for insertion ; but owing to the timidity 
of Attorneys and the professional tribe was as often rejected : 
‘Londonderry, Dec. 21, 1783. The Earl of B. having now 
issued orders to his attorneys to prosecute the printer of a paper 
signed Scaevola in a Journal known to be infamous, suspected 
to be Ministerial, entitled the Freeman's Journal, he now 
calls upon the author, if he be of the rank of a gentleman to 
avow himself; & if he does not give that author such satis- 
factory proof that he is misinformed as to induce him to retract 
his calumny and consequently implore pardon, he will then 
trace him from Forbes Ross at the Printing Office in Crane 
Lane, up to the Earl of Northington at the Castle (if the E. of 
N. like many of his predecessors can be supposed capable of 
such calumny) and will drag the assassin from the foot of the 
Throne, to the pinnacle of the pillory. 

‘“In.a free country the fair fame of a citizen has ever been 
his dearest possession, and the IE. of B. contemptuous of those 
adventitious advantages arising from rank & casual birth 
asserts the nobler privileges of a free-born citizen, and appeals 
to the laws of his Country for chastisement of those parasites 
who anonymously & clandestinely dare to violate them.’ ” 


No further allusion to the scandal appeared in the news- 
papers, and it might well have been forgotten altogether, 
were it not for Charlemont’s damaging record of it in his 
Memotrs. 

The innocent lady whose name had been bruited by this 
unseemly publicity died two years afterwards, in 1785. She 
was then barely twenty-two. 

Downhill still evokes her memory by traces of her brief 
association with the place. A charming miniature there 
represents her with her hair slightly powdered and as wearing 
a necklace of pearls; while a romantic interest attaches to the 
Mussenden Temple as it is called to this day. Domed and 
circular, it resembles Bramante’s temple on Monte Gianicolo 
at Rome, and stands on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic 
Ocean ; and though wind and storm and fire have wrought havoc 
on other monuments of the Bishop at Downhill, this still remains 
a memorial for a lovely woman cut off in her early prime, and of 
the Bishop’s romantic tribute to her perfections. 


CEL be URAC LV: 


1784 


HILE the Irish newspapers, whether hostile or favour- 
able to the Bishop, continue to give prominence to his 
sayings and doings, the secret correspondence of Dublin Castle, 
during the spring of 1784 and onward, contained frequent 
mention of him. Lord Northington was succeeded as Viceroy 
in February, 1784, by Pitt’s young friend the Duke of Rutland, 
who inaugurated a régime of brilliance such as had never before 
been known at Dublin Castle. 
| Primed on his arrival with the “data” collected by his 
predecessor, the new Viceroy, with youthful ardour, and not 
unwilling to figure as a man with his eyes wide open, began 
at once to keep a sharp look out on the factious prelate— 
“factitious’’ is his Excellency’s word. Writing from Dublin 
March 10, 1784, he reports to Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, 
Secretary of State for the Home Office :* 
“Lord Bristol has been quiet generally, though Lord Hills- 
borough sends me a Derry Gazette with some factitious answers 
to Addresses. I shall keep a vigilant eye on his conduct.” 


On March 24 Rutland writes again to Sydney: “ Your 
Lordship has already been assured that at all times I shall 
very strictly observe the conduct and proceedings of the Bishop 
of Derry, which though perhaps less important than distant 
representations may describe them, ought not however to be 
allowed such latitude & indulgence as must gradually extend 
to the power of effecting mischief. His Lordship’s forwardness 
to seize any opportunity of involving this country in disorder 
- & tumult can be but little doubted, and as the event of the bill 
for correcting defects in the representation of the people in 


* Original among the Marsham Townshend Papers, at Frognal, sold to Mr. Sawyer, 
bookseller. This draft and fair copy is among the Rutland Papers. 


337 


338 The Earl Bishop 


Parliament may probably create some agitation in his mind, 
and be employed by him as an instrument of irritation to others, 
I have judged it prudent to take preparatory steps to counteract 
any measure he may be disposed to adopt, strictly attentive to 
the most cautious & secret mode of proceeding. For this 
purpose I have despatched a gentleman of the neighbourhood 
who will not be suspected by the Bishop, and on whom I can 
entirely depend, to watch the effect which the news of the 
rejection of the Bill shall produce. I shall be much concerned 
to find myself obliged to proceed to extremities, & to take a 
step which in every degree might occasion a ferment, or be 
productive of any temporary confusion, but I think it’s essential 
to the interests of His Majesty’s Government that an example 
should be made among the abettors of sedition, if such there 
be, in this country, should any legal, clear ground of criminality 
be discerned against them.” 


Thus a spy was set by the Viceroy himself to watch the 
Bishop and secretly report his conduct. 


Rutland continues : 
‘. , . has also undertaken to procure & forthwith to com- 
municate to me certain information upon several important 
points, of which we have not been able to gain sufficient evidence, 
& particularly respecting the mode the Bishop has taken to 
enlist and embody the men for his regiment, whether by giving 
them money, & by obliging them to take and subscribe any 
particular tests, & also in regard to his ordering and importing 
arms of which various reports have been conveyed to me. 
Upon this head indeed your Lordship may possibly have it in 
your power to gain intelligence by proper enquiries, addressed 
to Birmingham, from whence the arms are said to have been 
ordered. I am further to be informed, to learn by means of 
this gentleman, whether any suspicious persons who may be 
disposed to be commissaries from any other quarter in alliance 
with the Bishop, frequently resort to him, and may be traced 
to their principal.”’ 


While the Bishop was being spied upon by an unsuspected 
neighbour in Derry, treachery was at work in another quarter 
with which he was intimately associated. This is evidenced 
by a curious letter which was formerly among Lord Sydney’s 


Papers at Frognal and is here brought to light for the first 
time. 


The Earl Bishop 339 


Dated March 14, 1784, it is from one Timothy Brecknock,* 
an associate of the Bishop’s nephew, George Robert Fitzgerald. 
This wretched Brecknock, who was to become so closely em- 
broiled with Fitzgerald that he was eventually hanged with 
him for murder on the same gallows, was now ready to spy on 
his host and friend in Dublin, and to sell to the Government 
any information he could pick up. 

Writing to Sydney, he professes to be “‘ in the secret of what 
is doing in the St. Alban’s Tavern at the Court of Versailles, 
and at our own Court, & consequently through my connections 
in Ireland can be of most splendid service to my King and 
yr own Administration, for my residence in Dublin will be 
in Merrion Square at Mr. George Robert Fitzgerald’s, who 
besides his being a nephew of the Bishop of Derry, besides his 
being an Elder branch of the House of Kildare as the immediate 
Heir-male of the last Earl of Desmond, is one of the most gallant 
and active Colonels of the Volunteers.’ 

As a matter of fact little or no secret information was likely 
to be obtainable about the Bishop, for his behaviour was at 
all times only too conspicuous and unguarded, and his fiery 
utterances were reported in the papers verbatim. 

An address to the Bishop was presented in April from 
“the Gentlemen, Clergy and Freeholders of the County of 
Galway,” pointedly connecting the principles of the Bishop 
with those of his hero Chatham ; presumably the younger Pitt, 
but lately entered on his first Administration, would be little 
gratified by this association of his father’s name with the 
Bishop’s propaganda. 

‘“Nurtured as you, my Lord, have been,” said the Galway 
deputation, “‘in the sacred lap of Freedom, and having imbibed 
its elements from that great ornament of human nature the 
late Earl of Chatham, you transplanted them here, you fostered 
them with parental care, you will now enjoy the satisfaction of 
seeing them advance to maturity.’’ (Published in the Dublin 
Evening Post, April 13, 1784.) 

The Bishop, in his reply, employed figurative and oracular 
language: ‘‘If he said the malady of our constitution, which 
under the veil of monarchy conceals the beautiful essence of 

* Brecknock, now elderly, was half insane and wholly a knave. Born in 1716, a 
natural son of a Welsh Bishop, he was originally intended for the Church, but preferred 
to be a Newgate solicitor and thus became intimate with criminals. Fitzgerald, aware of 
his great legal ability, invited him to live with him. He was the promoter of a strange 
religion, and asserted he would reign a thousand years with Christ on Earth. He wrote 
letters to Queen Charlotte and George IIJ., claiming to be under the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit. His insanity showed itself in his horrible custom of drinking his own blood, when 
he was cupped once a month by a surgeon. He declared that owing to this, although he 


was 166 years old, he had preserved his youth and strength, and that he would live to 
the Millennium which would shortly commence. (Evening Herald, March 21, 1788.) 


340 The Earl Bishop 


a commonwealth, is become quite irremediable by the lenient 
arts of alteratives, let the delirious patient, who hath hitherto 
eluded or derided our lenitives, feel at length all the pungent 
but salutary anguish of encaustics or amputation : Ense reciden- 
dum quod non medicabile valnus.” (Silius Italicus,”’ X., 416.) 
In May the Bishop, passing through Derry, “ flying ’’ as he 
says—and having “just landed”’ on his return from a brief 
visit to England—attended a banquet given in Derry on the 
occasion of Fighting Fitzgerald being presented with the Free- 
dom of the Maiden City. This undeserved compliment was 
avowedly paid to him as being the nephew of the Bishop, whom 
in his address of thanks Fitzgerald characterized as an “ illu- 
minated and illuminating constellation.’’? He also said that 
he himself ‘‘ ardently aspired to emulate the patriotic, brilliant 
example of an uncle who, in all his actions public and private, 
combined the excellence of dignity with the excellency of power.”’ 
such eulogies may appear absurdly fulsome, but, to do him 
justice, the fire-eater was as enthusiastic in his friendships as 
he was violent in his animosities, and his admiration of his 
uncle may well have been sincere and disinterested. The 
support, however, of a man so notorious must surely have 
brought no credit to the Bishop’s cause, although Fitzgerald 
as the dashing Colonel of Volunteers was undoubtedly popular 
with his men. In connection with the Bishop’s association with 
his graceless nephew an outrageous report was circulated that 
the Bishop had actually ordained him. Reaching London, it 
was believed in the highest quarters, and even the precise value 
of the rich benefices to be bestowed on him was confidently 
stated.* 
_ The proceedings at Derry on the occasion of Fitzgerald’s 
inauguration were marked by a peculiar feature. While the 
Bishop was being thus loudly extolled, the worthy Presbytery 
of Derry, unwilling to be left behind, determined to proclaim 
their appreciation of their Episcopal patron, and taking advan- 
tage of his visit to their city presented him, at his palace, with 
an address which—apparently on account of its obvious lapses 
in grammar—has been stigmatized by that pillar of establish- 
ment, Bishop Mant, as “ below criticism.’’ Whatever were the 

* One of the Chaplains to the King, the Rev. Henry Jerome de Salis (a brother of the 
Count de Salis), wrote the news to Lord Dacre (August 17, 1784): 

‘Lord Bristol has outdone his outdoings . . . he has ordained his nephew Fitzgerald 
—the Fitzgerald who for years had been a nuisance to Society here, & when England was 
grown too hot to hold him went over to Ireland, seized his own father, confined him, set 
the whole civil power of the country at defiance & was the cause of a great deal of biood- 
shed. He has fought one duel even since he has been in Orders. Church preferments to 
the amount of £2,000 a year are given to him or intended for him. Ithink this to be much 


the most indecent thing, not to say the greatest outrage to Society that has happened in ~ 
my time. (Hist. Commission MSS, 13, Report, Appendix IV., page 376.) 


The Earl Bishop 341 


literary short-comings of the Presbytery of Derry, their address 
is at least noteworthy as the first ever presented to a bishop by 
a nonconformist body. As such it is deserving of honourable 
mention in our chronicles, being equally creditable to themselves 
and to the Bishop. 

“When the valuable part of this kingdom were forward in 
doing justice to his merit, the Presbytery of Derry who resided 
immediately in his Lordship’ s diocese, thought themselves 
bound to express their perfect approbation of the liberality of 
his Lordship’s religious sentiments. Christianity is liberal, 
and he is the best disciple of Jesus Christ, who possesses the 
most extensive charity & good will to the human race. They 
conceive it, therefore, not inconsistent with their duty as 
Ministers of the Gospel of peace, to give that praise to a Prelate 
of another Church, which the unaffected purity and rectitude 
of his own, claims from every honest heart. Equally incapable 
of being profited by adulation to your Lordship ; abhorring 
the mean idea in case they were, and sensible of meeting with 
your Lordship’s contempt on that account, they rejoice in this 
opportunity of giving their tribute of deserved praise to a charac- 
ter in every respect so dignified. 


“ Signed by order, 


““SAM PATTEN, Moderator, 
“ Joun Law, Clerk.” 


Bishop Mant, writing half a century later in a spirit of 
prejudiced hostility towards nonconformity characteristic of 
his age, comments pompously on these amenities, in a sentence 
of unwieldy verbosity which, as to its literary composition, is 
itself not above criticism, and has not escaped it from an 
able Presbyterian writer. (Reid’s ‘‘ History of the Presby- 
terians.’’) 

“To this effusion of self-complacence from a Sectarian 
body,” says Mant, “‘ the composition of whose address is below 
criticism, though sufficiently worthy of the occasion and of 
the sentiments which it conveys, the Bishop of Derry deemed 
it suitable to his profession and order to return the following 
answer which commences with an allusion to the freedom of 
the city, lately conferred upon his Lordship’s ‘ unfortunate and 
guilty nephew ’ as we have lately seen him described in terms 
not marked with undue severity towards one who, within two 
years, underwent the sentence of the law for murder, George 
Robert Fitzgerald. . 

To the honest, if quaint address of his nonconformist 


342 The Earl Bishop 


‘brethren,’ Derry’s Bishop — never pompous — returned 
acknowledgment not the less appreciative and sincere that it 
was informal and airily expressed : 


‘To the Presbytery of Derry : 

‘ Just landed, as it were, to witness the inauguration 
of my hospitable nephew, as a citizen of this grateful and inde- 
pendent city, the Presbytery of Derry Gf I may use a trite adage) 
have caught me as my enemies never will catch me, flying. I 
am happy, my brethren, to receive in this episcopal mansion, 
so honourable a testimony of the Presbytery’s affection: but 
I feel still more happy in the consciousness of deserving it. That 
liberality of sentiment which you ascribe to me flows from the 
rare consistency of a Protestant bishop who feels it his duty, 
and has therefore made it his practice, to venerate in others 
that unalienable exercise of private judgment which he & his 
ancestors claimed for themselves. Happy epocha in Irish 
annals! and formidable only to the bigots of either sect, when 
the Presbytery of Derry, stimulated neither by servile fear 
nor still more servile adulation, can thus avow the liberality 
of its bishop, and glory in their testimony. 

“On the great object which now centres in me the applauses 
of such various & even contradictory denominations of citizens, 
I do own to you the very rock which founds my Cathedral is 
less immoveable than my purpose to liberate this high-mettled 
nation from the petulant and rapacious oligarchy which plunder 
and insult it. A convulsion of nature might indeed shiver the 
one to atoms ; but no convulsion, either of nature or of the state 
can slacken my purpose ; it may destroy, but it cannot stagger 
me. 

‘ BRISTOL. 

‘“ Londonderry, 19th May, 1784.” 


Brave words, sincere purpose, though to prove impossible 
of realization. 

The redundancy of the Bishop’s metaphors supplied matter 
for the Irish wags who made merry in the papers for some 
successive weeks. 

‘The Presbytery of Derry,” said the Dublin Evening Post, 
May 27, 1784, ‘are certainly the best of all fowlers to wing 
or rather catch their B— flying. But the inauguration of the 
Gentle George was sufficient apology for stopping the mocking- 
bird in its flight. Little Andre will tie a string to its leg & stroke 
its feathers & call it ‘pretty Freddie’—and sing to it ‘Go 
little foolish fluttering thing,’ and say it is a pretty egoist in 


The Earl Bishop 343 


its episcopal mansion & it shall be rocked in its Cathedral until 
a convulsion of nature shall shiver it to atoms.’ While in the 
same paper, adulatory poems in honour of the Bishop appeared 
from time to time—one of these being an acrostic in the form 
of a sonnet ; each of the fourteen lines began in turn with a 
letter of his name, FREDERICK HERVEY; some ironical 
verses thus allude to the union of Catholics and Presbyterians 
advocated by the Bishop : 


‘‘ In days of yore, the Prophets hoar 
Were often heard declaring 
That all mankind should one day find 
Their different notions squaring. 
That’s come about, beyond a doubt, 
Ye sceptics hence be neuter— 
The Pope to-day was heard to pray 
With Calvin and with Luther.” 


(June 20, 1784.) 


Ouips on the imaginary “‘ flights’’ of the Bishop are mingled 
with strictures on his actions or supposed actions which are 
everywhere reported : ‘‘ The B— of D—y has ordered a thousand 
hight infantry caps to be made—for what ? Let this Minister 
of Peace declare for what purpose. If it be for the accommo- 
dation of the drill gentry, his Lordship has no occasion to add 
wings to those caps like Mercury’s, for they are in their natural 
condition as ready to flyas his Lordship. We should, therefore, 
recommend bells to be added to those presents, & hung inhis 
Lordship’s hall as trophies in the Temple of Folly.” 

“ The B— of D—,” reports another paragraph, “‘ having done 
flying, we now behold him turning mason compounding mortar, 
and exercising his trowel to build what he calls a Temple of 
Liberty. But, in the erection of this Babel we find his Lordship 
fated like those who built the ancient tower, and falling into 
a strange confusion of language.”’ 

His answer to the Raphoe Battalion is certainly conceived 
ina sort of Lingo. The fact was that the Bishop in his answer 
to the delgates of Raphoe had again spoken in hyperbole—ever 
pleasing to an Irish audience, who perhaps would be likely 
to appreciate the glamour of the Bishop’s effusions better than 
the truths which underlay them. The Temple of Liberty which 
he indicated to them was one not made with hands but a 
spiritual temple to be dedicated to that “ glorious cause ”’ 
which was “worthy of a Citizen, Philosopher and Christian,”’ 
“a fabric to be raised by the joint labour of all, and to be in- 
habited by all,’ and he himself would be “ proud to bear the 
trowel and the shovel” and “ indefatigably assist in raising 
this Temple of Liberty upon the basis of Universal Benevolence.”’ 


344 The Earl Bishop 


But with all this imagery the Bishop made a distinct pronounce- 
ment, very remarkable for a Bishop of the Established Church 
enjoying a benefice of some eight thousand a year. He did 
not recollect, he said, ‘“‘ one single historical instance in which 
the much vaunted alliance between Church and State had not 
produced a sort of miscreated progeny composed of tyranny 
and hate.” (Dublin Evening Post, July 15, 1784.) 

But although the Irish wits might treat matters lightly, 
the English Administration at Dublin Castle continued to 
take the gravest view of the Bishop’s demeanour. At this 
critical stage, when spies and agents blundered and misled, there 
was one who rendered service of incalculable value to the Ad- 
ministration, gradually but surely undermining the Bishop’s 
influence with the Volunteers. Throughout the summer of 
1784 Charlemont wielded his whole power with the Volunteers 
for the disruption of the union of Presbyterians with Catholics 
which the Bishop had striven to create and which constituted 
alike the strength of the movement and its dangers to the 
Administration. In Charlemont’s deep-rooted but sincere 
prejudice against Catholic encroachment, sharpened by his 
dislike of the Bishop and his jealousy of a rival, the Adminis- 
tration found its best instrument for counteracting the propa- 
ganda of the Bishop and for emasculating the power of the 
Volunteers. At the series of reviews over which Charlemont 
presided as General, he lost no opportunity of sowing discord 
between Presbyterians and Catholics; and by working on 
Protestant prejudices and fears this was easy to accomplish. 
His policy received the secretly expressed approbation of 
King George himself. To the King’s infinite satisfaction, and 
that of his representative in Ireland, Charlemont publicly 
announced to the Volunteers his disapproval of their admitting 
Roman Catholics to their ranks, and his doing so in the North 
and in the diocese of Derry, where the Bishop had already 
effected much in the direction of reciprocal good feeling between 
the two sections, especially exasperated the Bishop. 

The Belfast Newsletter* at this juncture set powder to 
flame by the publication of a violent attack on the Administra- 
tion, purporting to be the Bishop’s ‘‘ Answer ”’ to the Newtown- 
ards Reform Club—so says the King himself in a secret letter 
among Lord Sydney’s Papers at Frognal. 

The Duke of Rutland now wrote to Pittt to consult him un- 


* The Belfast Newsletter was first edited in 1737. Published twice a week for more 
than half a century, it had a most extensive circulation. 


+ Correspondence between Pitt and Charles, Duke of Rutland, privately printed by 
Lord Mahon in 1842 and reprinted by the late Duke of Rutland in 1890. 


The Earl Bishop. 345 


officially as to the advisability of arresting the Bishop, and 
sent him the contumacious publication, with a view to its 
being shown to the Cabinet. Pitt and Sydney, with whom 
Rutland had also communicated, immediately submitted it to 
the King. The whole correspondence indicates the grave 
aspect in which the affair was viewed, and had it not been for 
the restraining influence of the great Minister himself, and the 
inclination of the King in the same direction, matters might 
have been forced to extremity. The subject opens with a 
letter from Rutland to Pitt dated ‘‘ Dublin Castle, July 24, 
1784.” 

“TI cannot,” he says, “‘ consistently with my zeal for the 
King’s service and my affectionate attachment to you, omit 
transmitting to you as speedily as possible a very flagitious 
publication which has just been put into my hands, & which 
will, I suppose, be re-echoed through all the newspapers of this 
kingdom, & possibly yours. .. . 

‘The present season for reviewing the Volunteers has 
furnished an incident which I am not without hopes will go, 
not only to weaken the improper influence of those armed 
bodies, but may possibly lead to their gradual dissolution. 
Lord Charlemont, the reviewing general of the Volunteers, 
has in an answer to one of their addresses in the north, given 
a decided opinion of his disapprobation of admitting Roman 
Catholics to any right of voting, which opinion directly tends 
to divide the Volunteers into two classes, & of course to crumble 
both. 

“YT did apprehend that Lord Charlemont’s stopping short 
would push forward the Bishop of Derry ; but I could scarcely 
have conceived that his Lordship would have gone so very 
far as he has done in the enclosed publication, especially as his 
near connexion with Lord Mulgrave, on your side the water, 
and his brother Mr. Phipps, now one of my aide-de-camps here, 
gave me hopes that he would have contented himself with 
those enormities of which he had been guilty in the adminis- 
tration of Lord Northington in the face of Parliament. The 
question therefore is what is now prudent to be done, for I 
shall most cheerfully execute whatever shall be thought wise 
& best, feeling, as I own I do, much indignation at the daring 
& indecent conduct of this extraordinary English Peer & still 
more extraordinary Irish Bishop. But under the impression 
of those feelings I ask myself . . . whether these factions which 
the Duke of Portland’s administration has planted in this 
country may not acquire strength by placing the Bishop of 
Derry at the head of the Papists & all the malcontents who 


346: The Earl Bishop 


openly or secretly abet Mr. Fox* and his adherents here ; whether 
taking any step avowedly against the Bishop at present may 
not bring on such a general scene of discontent as may lead 
him to invite foreign assistance, and make Ireland, as far as he 
can, imitate America, & whether anything can be effectually 
done in this recess of Parliament here, or at all events before the 
sitting of the Courts of justice in November next; though 
I think any redress to be expected there far inadequate to his 
Lordship’s offences. Whether, again, as an English peer, 
this intemperate mischievous man may not be more effectually 
punished or quieted by an English Parliament, now sitting, 
than by any step that can be taken here : | 
“These are considerations which I thought proper to be 
suggested to you and perhaps to the Cabinet ; in the meantime 
I thought it my duty to send to the Attorney & Solicitor General 
to collect such evidence of these publications as may bring the 
facts home to the Bishop, which, I understand, was all that 
had been attempted by my predecessor, and that too without 
effect ; for no evidence of actual writing, or I believe, of pub- 
lishing these seditional addresses, has yet been obtained by all 
the vigilance of my immediate predecessor, during whose time 
these seditious publications first made their appearance. .. .”’ 


The Duke asks Pitt’s advice how he should act, and says, 
in conclusion, ‘“‘ your signifying to me either His Mayjesty’s 
commands or your own wishes will contribute much to my 
happiness, and I shall instantly take such part as may be deemed 
most conducive to the general welfare.” | 

The secret letter from the King to which allusion has been 
made was written to Lord Sydney two days later. It is here 
brought to light for the first time : 


‘““ Windsor, 
“ July 26, 1784, m-43 pt. II p.m. 
“The Duke of Rutland has acted most properly in trans- 
mitting, and not in an official channel, the very factious if’ not 
treasonable answer of the Bishop of Derry to the Newtownards 
Reform Club, published Newsletter, previous to his taking any 
step; which enables the Cabinet to weigh the whole, and 


consequently co-operate in the measures it may be necessary 
to adopt. 


* It was an error to suppose that the Bishop was a partisan of Fox, whom he detested. 
Fox, however, was of course ready to join in any movement likely to give trouble to Pitt’s 
Government. But he was no sincere friend to Irish reforms, and opposed them whenever 
it suited his purpose to do so, 


The Earl Bishop 347 


‘““T do not see how the British Parliament can take any step 
in this early stage ; it is as yet an Executive not a Legislative 
transaction. 

“So many evils have arisen from not crushing evils whilst 
in the bud, that I cannot well see how the Lord Lieutenant 
can be advised to remain a passive spectator, whenever He 
has such legal proofs as may be necessary to identify the Bishop 
having drawn up and sent this flagitious paper ; to begin so 
serious a business without being properly prepared would be 
the height of imprudence ; as, on the contrary, these once col- 
lected, it would be madness to permit this wicked Prelate to 
strengthen his party by such an appearance of timidity, and 
digest a plan perhaps at this hour but crudely formed. The 
declaration of Lord Charlemont is so opposite to this plan that 
I trust there will be a division among the Volunteers which may 
assist in destroying the present dangerous attempt. I am so 
certain that the Cabinet must view this in the same light I do, 
that I will not longer detain Lord Sydney. G. R.’’* 


The following extract from a letter addressed two days 
later by Sydney to Rutland (July 28, 1784) throws light on 
the proceedings of the Ministers before and after the King’s 
letter : 


“T immediately communicated with Mr. Pitt on the receipt 
of your letter—We agreed that its contents should be sent to 
the King and likewise laid before the Cabinet. It seemed to 
be the general opinion that such steps should be taken by your 
Grace as might put it into your power to proceed against the 
Bishop of Derry whenever the time comes that you can do it 
with effect. The paper is of the most flagitious kind, but as 
yet it is only the publication of a Belfast newswriter. But 
what you mention of endeavours having been used in the time 
of your predecessor to fix publications of this kind upon the 
Bishop of Derry, and of their having proved ineffectual, it looks 
as if his Lordship chose to shelter himself, & to put the printer 
between him & danger, though certainly, from the tenour of 
his general conduct it would be natural to suppose that he was 
ready to avow himself the author. . Mr. Pitt writes to you 
by this messenger which is a great satisfaction to me, as he will 
fully explain the sentiments of the Cabinet as well as his own upon 
this very disagreeable subject.”’ . . . (Hist. Commission, “ Rut- 
land Papers,’ XIV., page 128. Draft copy at Frognal sale.) 


* Copied from the original, which was among the Marsham-Townshend Papers at 
Frognal. At the sale there in 1915 it was purchased by Mr. Sawyer, bookseller. 


348 The Earl Bishop 


The wisdom of Pitt is conspicuous in his letter dispatched 
the same day : 


‘Downing Street, 
“Wednesday, July 28, 1784. 
MONEY DEAR (DUKE: 6 

‘With regard to the complexion of the letter which 
has been printed in Lord Bristol’s name there could be but one 
opinion. Although the publication (unless it is coupled with 
some act in consequence that might be construed into levying 
war) can hardly be supposed to be treasonable, it is at the same 
time so gross an insult on all government that it is impossible not 
to feel the strongest wish to bring the author of it to punishment. 
But in pursuing the consideration of this subject his Majesty’s 
servants are equally unanimous in thinking that it is involved 
in considerable difficulty, both with regard to the expediency 
of proceeding to such measures as the case may seem to call for 
and as to the prospect of reaching the principal delinquent Lord 
Bristol with effect. On the latter question . . . it occurs that 
the publication in its present shape only affords grounds of © 
prosecution against the printer and cannot furnish any ground 
against Lord Bristol, unless your enquiries succeed to fix upon 
him the writing or publishing of it, or unless the printer on being 
proceeded against should give him up as the Author. As to 
the expediency of any such proceeding . . . the notice of this 
offence might, as is often the case, serve to give new popularity 
and consequence to the offender. In the temper in which 
some parts of Ireland appear, even the cause of the printer, if 
he were the object of prosecution, might perhaps be made to 
raise a cry, however ill-founded, in the country. If the prose- 
cution against him should lead to direct proof against Lord 
Bristol, there is perhaps still more reason to apprehend that he 
might avail himself of the present conjuncture, and of the 
appearance of being persecuted, which is always easily assumed 
and always popular, to strengthen his party, particularly by 
endeavouring to make a common interest with the Roman 
Catholics. Ifthe intemperance and delusion of any considerable 
number should render him successful in that attempt, it might 
in the present state of Ireland lead to consequences which ought 
not to be hazarded without being fully prepared to meet them. 
To all these considerations it must undoubtedly be added that 
if, from want of evidence . . . the attempt to punish should 
prove unsuccesstul, it cannot fail to weaken the credit of govern- 
ment, and give fresh strength and credit to its opponents. On 
every account, therefore, we conclude that no step whatever 


The Earl Bishop 349 


should be taken against Lord Bristol without the most unequi- 
vocal proofs to support them; and that no step of any sort 
ought to be taken without most maturely considering, on the 
best information of the prevailing temper and actual circum- 
stances of the country, what effect may be expected. The 
King’s servants do not feel themselves sufficiently masters of 
every consideration that would make a part of the question 
to form an adequate and decisive opinion at thismoment. They 
conceive the less inconvenience is likely to result from the 
suspension of any positive determination, as they apprehend 
that it is impossible any prosecution can be set on foot before 
the beginning of the term, and that therefore that interval will 
allow them the opportunity of more fully considering the sub- 
ject before it is necessary that Government should be com- 
mitted init. Your Grace has undoubtedly judged very wisely 
in allowing measures to be taken immediately to collect evidence ; 
but the reasons I have before stated make it desirable that they 
should be taken privately, without any ostensible act on the 
part of government. It seems also, on the same account, proper 
not to convene any formal meeting of the Law Servants or to 
take in any shape, any public notice of this business, till it is 
riper than at present. Any proceeding in this country against 
Lord Bristol as a British peer, would, in the present circum- 
stances be liable to most of the same objections, and appears 
besides to involve many others. I have now troubled your 
Grace with all that I am enabled to state to you on this subject. 
Though I have on this occasion been so far from assisting you 
with a formed and decisive opinion, I cannot conclude without 
assuring you that we are all sensible to the necessity of forming 
upon due deliberation some systematic line of conduct which, 
when thoroughly weighed, must be steadily adhered to, as the 
only chance of extricating the interests of this country in 
Ireland from the delicate situation in which they are placed, 
and of preserving the tranquillity of that kingdom. Till sucha 
line of conduct can be fully concerted, I feel that your Grace’s 
task is necessarily to a certain degree to temporize, which is 
never pleasant, and can never for any long time be safe. For 
every reason, you will not doubt of my sincere wish to relieve 
you from the necessity of such conduct by every exertion which 
I can contribute to your assistance—I am ever, my dear Duke, 
your most faithful & affectionate friend, W. PITT.” 

While the attitude of Pitt with regard to the Bishop was 
one of judicious policy, and he was evidently opposed to the 
prosecution of so prominent an idol of the Irish people, it seems 
likely that for personal reasons he was secretly unwilling to 

VOL. II. 2 


350 The Earl Bishop 


proceed to extremities against a friend and strong adherent of 
his late father. 

On August 15, in a letter to Pitt, Rutland remarks: “If 
you will not consent to Lord Bristol’s treasons being noticed, at 
least I hope, some object equally worthy of punishment may 
be laid hold of.’ It appears from his correspondence that the 
Duke was wide of the mark as to the Bishop’s aims and policy ; 
and ‘‘ having discovered a clue,” as he said, that “all the plots 
which are contriving in this country are entirely French and 
Roman Catholic,” he was certainly on the wrong track in 
associating the Bishop with French plots. 

The fact was that Rutland now believed he had found an 
important confirmation of what he “had always suspected,’ 
as he writes to Lord Sydney (namely, that ‘ the disturbances 
which have agitated this country have all originated their source 
in French interests’’). “There is a meeting,’ he reports; 
evidently well satisfied with his discovery, ‘‘in which two men 
of the name of Napper Tandy, and another called John... 
drink the French King on their knees, and their declared pur- 
pose is a separation from England and the establishment of the 
Roman Catholic religion.’ We shall see that the Bishop, 
with remarkable consistency, was careful not to associate himself 
with the separatist faction of Napper Tandy—Rutland, indeed, 
a full-blooded young man of altogether splendid presence and 
physique, was not gifted with any remarkable perspicacity, nor 
was he wisely served by those about him, who believed that by 
peeping into Newenham’s letter-bags they had made important 
discoveries. ‘‘A striking example is wanted and must be 
produced for the benefit of future tranquillity,’ wrote the 
Viceroy to Pitt; apparently it mattered nothing who was the 
victim to be offered in sacrifice, provided he furnished “‘ a striking 
example.” While Dublin Castle with its ‘‘ hacks’’ and spies 
was thus making confusion worse confounded, the Bishop’s 
admirers the louder proclaimed him a hero and a martyr. 
The Hibernian Journal of August 14, 1784, announces : “‘ Were 
we not highly satisfied of the virtues of that nobleman the Earl 
of Bristol, they might be distinguished by the mean, scurrilous 
abuse of Castle prints. The friend of the people receives their 
paltry invective, while they bestow fulsome plaudits upon 
the enemies of the nation. Their abuse is praise. Such 
obloquy to him but increases the gratitude and affection of 
ne Teopie. because he has proved himself their sincere 
riend.’’ 

Meanwhile in England the Bishop was likely to be viewed 
with disapproval and suspicion. Writing from London at 


The Earl! Bishop 851 


this juncture, the orthodox Dr. Lort, in a letter to Bishop 
Percy, dated August 19, 1784, comments on affairs : 

“Notwithstanding what you say of the declining spirit of 
Volunteering, still we think here that you have some desperate 
spirits on your side of the water that are determined to throw 
all into confusion, and that a certain Bishop is of the number.” 
(Nichol’s “‘ Literary Anecdotes,” VII., 465.) 


VOL. Il. 2% 


CHAPTER XXXV 
1784 (continued) 


HE information which Bishop Percy had communicated 

to Dr. Lort as to the declining spirit of the Volunteers 

was well-founded, and with it their power as a political instru- 

ment was being extinguished. Charlemont had seen to this. 

The seeds of discord between Protestants and Catholics had 

been carefully sown and fostered by him, and their united 
action was no longer to be feared. 

In a letter among his correspondence Charlemont trium- 
phantly announces (August 27, 1784) on the conclusion of his 
Reviews of the Volunteers in the North of Ireland that he left 
matters “in the episcopal city (Derry) as well as possible— 
the troops instigated as I suppose by his Holiness (the Bishop) 
did not meet me, but, ashamed of their conduct . . . sent to 
desire leave to escort me to the review and out of town... . 
At the meeting the Catholic question was proposed, and, after 
a long debate, withdrawn, so that Old Latimer’s bishop was 
routed, horse and foot even in his own metropolis. ... At 
Derry I dined with the Mayor and almost got drunk with old 
Protestant toasts.”’ Of Derry, by the way, Charlemont admits 
that “the city is now equally open to Protestants and 
Papists.”’ 

Rutland, in a like exultant spirit, reports to Pitt (Septem- 
ber 13): “‘ The seeds of dissension by Lord Charlemont’s address 
have been so completely sowed between the Catholics and 
Presbyterians that the power of both these parties is much 
diminished.”’ 

We may contrast with their policy the Bishop’s advice to 
his co-reformers: ‘“‘Quench but this firebrand of religious 
discordancy,” he had said some six months earlier to the Mayo 
delegates, “‘ which the common enemy of both parties has 
been perpetually hurling through this distracted and deluded 


302 


The Earl Bishop 358 


nation, and ye will soon see the pure lambent flame of liberty 
cherish and enlighten Ireland. But until ye can forgive and 
reciprocally tolerate each other ve must expect to find yourselves 
ultimately tools and victims.’ Thus, in proportion as his 
advice of cohesion was disregarded, the people’s aims were 
frustrated and their rights unachievable: he had duly warned 
them, and it was now their own fault if he could no longer 
help them: by losing their opportunity they were themselves 
ruining their cause, while they were cutting the ground from 
under his feet. 

The “rout,’’ of which Charlemont boasted, must have been not 
the less galling to the Bishop that his younger son Frederick, who, 
now aged about fifteen, had lately been promoted Colonel of 
the Tyrone Battalion, was present at the Reviews, and was thus 
a witness of his discomfiture. The supporters of the Bishop 
had augured well from the appointment of the boy, and the 
Dublin Evening Post had declared that ‘it must do great credit 
to that Corps, and add new vigour to the Volunteer cause. 
Their young Commander,” it proceeded, “ is really a fine spirited 
young fellow and as warm a friend to this country as his father, 
who continues as steady a perseverance as ever, notwithstand- 
ing all the abuse he has met with, and the various efforts that 
have been made to seduce him from the paths of honour and 
independence, and the establishment of a substantial reform 
in the representation of Ireland.’’ 

It is clear, however, that the summer campaign of Charle- 
mont culminated in a damaging and final assault on the epis- 
copal strongholds, and henceforth the Bishop’s forces were 
irretrievably broken. There were, moreover, other influences 
undermining the unity which makes for strength. Before 
tracing these, it is observable that from this time—the autumn 
of 1784—the Bishop’s public utterances were less frequent, 
however strongly he may have continued to proclaim his con- 
victions in his immediate circle. 

A report from London now reached the Volunteer Post, 
showing the Bishop’s political operations in a moderated and 
milder form : 

“The only object Lord Bristol professes particular zeal to 
see achieved, is a parliamentary reform ; and this once carried, 
it is understood that his Lordship’s opinions will then inculcate 
the necessity there is for the Civil Government of the country 
to return to its original order, without interposition from military 
associations, provincial delegates, or any other assembly 
anomalous to the Constitution.”’ 

A cause for the Bishop’s gradual retirement from his former 


354 The Earl Bishop 


publicity may be found in the fact that a new current, flowing 
from another direction, had lately burst upon the troubled 
waters of reform. The Bishop has been accused of inconsis- 
tency because he withheld his countenance from the reform 
Congress instigated by Napper Tandy, now prominently figuring 
in the public eye. It is evident that the Bishop was unwilling 
to join forces with a rabble-leader of the class of Tandy, or with 
Tandy’s confederate, that bungling patriot Sir Edward Newen- 
ham. That he did not do so caused much heart-burning in 
their ranks. 

A letter from Belfast to an:eminent merchant in this city 
(Dublin) has the following illuminating passage: ‘“‘ All is lost! 
We are damned beyond redemption! The Bishop of Derry has 
declined acting as a delegate (at the Tandy-Newenham Congress). 
If this be true—if this ornament of human nature, as the 
seditious prints call him—has refused to attend N— T—’s 
Rump Parliament, in what degree of contempt must it stand ?”’ 
(Volunteer Evening Post, September 25, 1784.) Again: 

“The non-attendance of the immaculate Bishop in his 
congressional capacity has given a death-blow to the hopes 
of those vagrants who strolled up to town to have a sight of this 
great man. The Bishop says he would not accept the dele- 
gation conferred on him by the inhabitants of Belfast, as they 
had been rather unfortunate in the choice of the group they 
had delegated with him. In refusing to herd with the 
beasts who compose the present Congress he shows in one 
instance at least that a noble drop of blood still flows in his 
veins.”’ 

To this Congress at Dublin the presence of Flood gave 
some importance—it was the only one he attended—and, so 
confidently was it expected that the Bishop would grace the 
proceedings at the “ Dancing School’’—as the Congress which 
assembled in the rooms of the dancing-academy was nick- 
named—that there appeared in the Volunteer Post an imaginary 
account of the Bishop leading off the dance with Flood for 
his partner. ‘In all the difficult movements of the dance,” 
it facetiously announced, ‘‘it is impossible to conceive the 
excellence and alertness of the B—’s motions, and how wonder- 
fully Mr. F. imitated the Duchess of Rutland. He had her 
smiles and her manners toa T. . . . His sly leers at the B—p 
were incomparable.” 

But the Bishop, in fact, had broken his connection with 
Flood, which had resulted in disappointment to himself; and 
he was not to be led into joining him in any complicated dance 
with Tandy and Newenham figuring in the same set. 


The Earl Bishop 355 


Joking apart, the Bishop knew well enough that Flood, keen 
though he was for Parliamentary Reform, was as firm as ever 
against concessions to the Catholics, and that, with Flood 
present at Tandy’s Congress, no Resolutions would be carried 
in that direction. 

The Bishop therefore remained at home, and, leaving 
the wider stage of the metropolis to a rival school of political 
performers, indulged—so to speak—in some private theatricals 
before a smaller and a more select audience, among his own 
people. 

Lord Charlemont having departed from Derry, and conse- 
quently the fears of Popish encroachment which had been excited 
by Protestant orgies having somewhat abated there, a body of 
Presbyterians temporarily returned to the leading of the Bishop, 
and actually passed a resolution in favour of admitting Catholics 
to the franchise with themselves. 

Horace Walpole writes the astounding news to Sir 
morace Mann at Florence, September 30, 1784: > °° Think 
of a reformation of Parliament by admitting Roman Catholics 
to vote at elections! and that that preposterous idea should 
have been adopted by Presbyterians. That it was sanctified 
by a Protestant Bishop is not strange, he would call 
Mussulmen to the poll, were there any within the diocese of 
Derry.” 

The rally of the Presbyterians of Derry, however, was but 
a flash in the pan, the flame of the movement was already 
practically extinct. The idea of any realization of the Bishop’s 
brave words about “liberating this high-mettled nation,” had 
proved but a dream. 

There was yet another and a still more serious cause at 
work to militate against the realization of the Bishop’s ideal 
of unity, and it came from another quarter. While suspicion 
of the Catholics was everywhere sedulously excited among the 
Presbyterians, the pusillanimity of the Catholics themselves 
was at the same time played upon, and a party among them was 
led to believe that a union with Presbyterians for obtaining 
equality of treatment was but a trap which would bring them 
to disaster, and that in their own interest they had best abandon 
any such claims as altogether beyond reach of attainment. 
This pacific section among the Irish Catholics was headed by 
Lord Kenmare, who deprecated that bellicose party among 
his co-religionists which was led by Sir Patrick Bellew. It 
will be remembered that both the Bishop and Lord Sydney in 
early youth—as Fred Hervey and Tom Townshend—used to 
associate with Bellew, when all three were the guests of Mr. 


356 The Earl Bishop 


and Mrs. Phipps at Horringer.* The Bishop not unnaturally 
had renewed his acquaintance with Bellew in Ireland ; and he 
was supposed in consequence to confer with him. In reality 
the Bishop’s aims were utterly distinct from Bellew’s plots of 
separation from England, and treasonable correspondence with 
France ; and he would have nothing to do with them. Thus 
from Catholics as well as Presbyterians the Bishop’s ideal of a 
union of reformers suffered a serious, and a final, disappointment 
at this juncture, and, it would seem, he never again attempted 
to unite his scattered forces, although leading personages, 
spiritual as well as temporal, still erroneously associated the 
Bishop with the disruption of Ireland from England. Mean- 
while the Duke of Rutland reported to Pitt on September 
13f some tittle-tattle about the Bishop: 

‘“ Your friend the Bishop of Derry has had his baggage packed 
for these last three weeks with a view to departing for the 
Continent ; but his mind is so volatile that it is impossible 
to say where he will go. He has turned his son Lord Hervey 
out of his house for a Tory ; anda party of Officers, among 
whom was my first atde-de-camp Colonel Dundas, lately dined 
with him, when his whole language was such complete treason 
that they were reduced to the alternative of flinging a little 
bottle at his head, or of quitting his company, the latter of 
which they preferred. If he continues in this Country to act 
as he has hitherto done, it will be impossible to avoid impeaching 
him next session.” 

As a matter of fact the Bishop did not go abroad till a 
year later, and his journeys were no further than to neigh- 
bouring counties. As to the story of Lord Hervey’s being 
turned out, Charlemont, in his Memoirs, gives a different 
version : 


‘ Respecting his son Lord Hervey, the poor young man came 
over not long since in order to procure the payment of his 
annuity which had for some time remained undischarged. He 
and a friend who accompanied him were at first politely received 
at Downhill, the Bishop’s whimsical mansion, but happening. 
one night to drink more than his father wished the oppor- 


* A letter of Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, at Frognal, dated September 17, 1784, 
beginning ‘‘ Dear Sir,” says: ‘‘ I think it is necessary to acquaint you who Sir Patrick 
Bellew is. I remember to have seen him as long ago as the first year I was at Lord Mul- 
grave’s Father near Bury, when I used to live much in society with the Bishop of Derry. 
This acquaintance is now resumed, & he may possibly be a great instrument in carrying 
on the foreign correspondence. His designs are unequivocally declared.” ... Original 
MSS, bought at the Frognal sale in 1915 by Mr. Sawyer, bookseller, who allows me to 
publish extracts from his papers. 


} Hist. Com. MSS., ‘‘ Rutland Papers,” page 135. 


The Earl Bishop 357 


tunity was eagerly seized, and he with his companions was 
fairly turned out of doors and even obliged to take refuge in 
the house of a gentleman who was totally unknown to them and 
who, being absent from home, his daughter was compelled to 
receive them.”’ 


Whatever of truth there may have been in either of these 
versions, it seems likely enough that the opposition the Bishop 
encountered in his public combats left him in no good humour 
for private dispute. With regard to Lord Hervey, it may be 
here said that he had a hot temper of his own, and that from 
his expensive habits, he was often in debt in spite of a handsome 
allowance which his father made him. He and Lady Hervey 
—good meek Lady Hervey—had been living and entertaining 
at Valentines,* a country house near Ilford, and about this time 
it was found necessary to get rid of this expensive residence. A 
year later we shall find Hervey living at Naples, where his 
private conduct made him the subject of some animadversion ; 
and later he became through his father’s influence English Envoy 
to the Tuscan Court at Florence, when he and his father were 
again on good terms. But whether a story concerning the 
Bishop were true or false his enemies were willing to believe 
anything to his discredit. While he was hostilely regarded 
by the temporal powers, he was even more so by his spiritual 
compeers. The aspect in which the Bishop appeared to the 
aged Archbishop Robinson of Armaght—a man of narrow 
outlook and little perspicuity—is presented in the corre- 
spondence of Lord Sydney in September, 1784. The Primate 
was in bad health, and his absence from Ireland made his 
information somewhat belated. His Grace was now on a visit 
to Tunbridge Wells, and Sydney reports to Pitt conversations 
he had with the Primate on two occasions at that health resort. 
There statesmen and other illustrious personages congregated 
at its Pantiles and discussed the condition of Ireland—at this 
time the principal subject of conversation. “‘I have just 
returned from Tunbridge Wells,” writes Sydney from “ Frognal, 


* Of Valentines, Lady Bristol remarks in a letter to her daughter, Lady Elizabeth Fos- 
ter (January 26, 1784): “It is really a pretty place, & very comfortable house, but there 
are some inconveniences belonging to it, & I wish your brother, if possible to get rid of it. 
Lady Hervey is not very well, & they talk of going to Spa early in the season. . . Your 
brother is grown fat & looks vastly well.’”’ . . . “ The Two Duchesses,” page 1 10. 


t Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh, first Lord Rokeby, born 1709, died 1794. 
Churchill thus alludes to him : 


‘In lawn-sleeves whisper to a sleeping crowd 
As dull as R—n, and half as proud.”’ 


358 The Earl Bishop 


September 6, 1784,* where I had a pretty long conversation 
with the Primate.’’—The latter held the gloomiest views about 
Ireland and attributed its evils to the machinations of the 
Papists to whom no concessions should have been made in 
the past or should be made in the future, neither should any 
Parliamentary reform whatever be granted. ‘“‘ He is decisive 
upon the subject of Lord Bristol and thinks he should be laid 
hold of upon the first opportunity. He does not believe he is 
leaving Ireland. I should take too much time if I were to 
repeat all he said upon the subject of this Personage though it 
would be tolerably entertaining.”’ 

Ten days later (September 17), Sydney reports a second 
interview he has had with the Primate at Tunbridge Wells : 
‘““He seemed more at his ease than when I saw him last... . 
He says he hears the Bishop of Derry is alarmed at the appre- 
hension of the Printer for High Treason.’’ Sydney gives details 
of this conversation and repeats these in a letter to the Duke 
of Rutland, dated Frognal, September 26,1784. (Hist. Comm. 
MSS., ‘‘ Rutland Papers,’ page 140.) ‘‘ He’’ (the Primate), says 
Sydney, “is clear that the Papists mean a separation of the two 
Kingdoms and a Popish King. He is equally clear that the mad 
Presbyterians in the North will be the dupes of their own 
bad policy. He thinks that their madder leader who is neither 
Papist nor Protestant and therefore, on that score, the more 
fit to negotiate between them, ought not to pass unnoticed, 
and indeed that he cannot pass unnoticed, and that the sooner 


he 1s dealt with the better... .’ The Primate recommended 
spy being set upon spy. ‘“‘ O’Leary may be a tolerably good 
spy. . . . He thought he might be used, but with some other 


spy upon him perhaps.’ This wastoomuch even for Rutland. 
He replies (October 7): ‘‘ I must apprise you that the Primate, 
with the utmost zeal for the good of the two kingdoms, is too 
apt to despond. His prejudice against the Roman Catholics in- 
creases his apprehension, and though some of them may meditate 
the most dangerous designs, I can hardly persuade myself that 
the larger and better proportion of them do not abhor the 
dangerous plans meditated by some. My sentiments about 
the Bishop of Derry, who I suppose is alluded to under the 


* Both these letters addressed to Pitt begin, ‘‘ Dear Sir’; they have not been 
published or quoted hitherto. They were among the Marsham-Townshend Papers at Frog- 
nal, with numbers of the original letters of the Duke of Rutland to Sydney, of which draft 
copies exist at Belvoir, quoted by the Hist. Commission of MSS. (‘‘ Rutland Papers”’). 

Sydney mentions he has been talking to the Duchess of Beaufort, who had just received 
a letter from her daughter, the Duchess of Rutland, giving an account of the attack by the 
mob on Dublin Castle. Both ladies attributed the motive of it to robbery, but, says 
Sydney, “‘ I do not agree with the two Duchesses.”’ (Letter from Frognal, now owned by 
Mr. Sawyer, bookseller.) : 





The Earl Bishop 359 


title of the madder leader who is neither Papist nor Protestant, 
and the lines to be pursued with him, are well known to your 
Lordship. His conduct has indisputably rendered him a fit 
subject to be dealt with by law. He isa sacrifice which none 
will regret, and might if necessary be made a striking example 
to the spirit and justice of Government, though little is to be 
apprehended from his endeavours at confusion. His character 
is far even below contempt, and I am confident his influence 
would neither afford him the means, nor would his courage 
suffer him to venture farther than the talking of treason over 
his claret.” 

As to “ character ’’: Whatever the Bishop’s private charac- 
ter may have been, Rutland’s was as much reprobated on the 
one side as was the Bishop’s on the other. Huis self-indulgent 
and intemperate habits were notorious, and were, in fact, 
leading him to premature death. That grand old man the Earl 
of Mansfield admonishes his young friend, ‘‘ the complaint which 
hurts you the most is drinking hard, and the irregularity of the 
hours of the Castle.” 

Rival newspapers vied with one another in scurrilous 
attacks on the private character of their respective political 
opponents. The Dublin Evening Post and the Azbernian 
Journal besmirched “‘ Charley Manners”’ and his Duchess and 
the “Castle hacks,’’ while they extolled the Bishop and the 
reformers. The Volunteer Evening Post and other papers did 
the reverse. At the same time caricatures of the Bishop with 
lampoons appeared and were eagerly bought. One bearing 
the date ‘‘ November 5’ implies a resemblance to Guy Fawkes. 
It represents the Bishop with a flaming torch in his right hand. 
On his left shoulder is seated a little imp with wings and tail. 
It faces the spectator with a broad grin, and holds in its claw 
a sheet of paper on which is written ‘An Archbishoprick ”’ 
(which the Bishop might be supposed to be coveting). Ona 
pedestal is inscribed : 


‘* The Irish Patriot,’’ 


and beneath the figure are the following lines : 


‘“ Of base Ingratitude possest, 
With rank Rebellion in his Breast, 
Tho’ rich yet poor, tho’ proud yet mean, 
Tho’ rob’d in purest Lawn, Unclean : 
With such Hypocrisy of Heart 
As makes astonish’d Virtue séart. 
When such a Soul the Devil shall fish up, 
Depend upon’t ’tis D—’s B—p.”’ 


(Published as the Act directs, November 5, 84.) 


360 The Earl Bishop 


Equally scurrilous, though conceived in lighter vein, is 
some “‘ Poetry,” which appears in the Volunteer Evening Post, 
under date November 27, 1784. It purports to be an “ Epistle 
from Aquilina, a celebrated Courtezan at Pisa, to a Right Rev. 
Gentleman in Ireland,” and begins as follows : i 


‘Oh Thou, whatever title please thine ear 
Priest, Lover, Captain, Shepherd, Statesman, Peer ! 
Whether supreme ’midst Dillettants plac’d, 

You give new fashions to the world of taste ;— 
Whether midst Volunteers in phrenzy-pride 
You mount the charger and the phalanx guide ; 
Or meet with Delegates in deep debate 

To take to pieces that machine—the State— 
Health to my Fred !—well be his cellars stor’d, 
Sound be his wine, and jovial be his board : 

O think of me, and when the bumpers pass, 

Let Aquilina mantle in the glass— 

As round the table the lov’d name you send 

Let pealing cheers the vaulted ceiling rend ! 
But hark !—methinks the post boy’s horn I hear ; 
My breast alternate throbs with hope and fear, 
Hope—that a billet-doux from thee is nigh 

Glows in my cheek and lightens in my eye, 

And then a deadly pale o’erspreads my face 

The H(ervey)s all are such a fickle race ; 

Odd neutral things* of maggots born and bred 
From soft Lord F(ann)y} down to mitred Fred— 
But true the good, untrue the boded ill— 

I see, I see a letter from D(ow)n Hill; 

Yes, from the Courier’s wallet piping hot, 

Ave Maria—I’m not quite forgot : 

No common bz/let-doux, but all in rhyme— 

The style, too, tender, as in love’s first prime,” 


and so forth for a further tale of more than a hundred lines of 
venomous satire. 


* An allusion to the oft-repeated adage, ‘‘ God made men, women and Herveys.”’ 
+ An allusion to Pope’s scurrilous lines on the Bishop’s father, Lord Hervey. 


CHAPTER XXXVI 


1785 


Lady Sneerwell : Why, truly Mrs. Clackitt has a very pretty talent and a great 
deal of industry. 

Snake: True, Madam, and has been tolerably successful in her day... . 
Nay, I have more than once traced her causing a téte-d-téte in the Town and Country 
Magazine when the parties perhaps had never seen each other’s face before in the 
course of their lives.’’—-School for Scandal, Act 1, Scene 1. 


HILE it is evident that the Italian Aquilina was a mere 
creation of fancy, there was an Irish lady whom gossip 
associated with the Bishop at this very time, or at least a few 
weeks later. It appears she was the wife of a clergyman whose 
name began with H, but it has not been possible to trace her 
identity ; and it may be remarked in passing that as the prurient 
author of Aquilina’s ribald verse makes no allusion to the story, 
we may conclude that it had not reached his ear, and was 
therefore not matter of notoriety. 

However that may have been, the Town and Country Maga- 
zine first gave wing to the scandal which perhaps had no more 
foundation in fact than had the inventions of Lady Sneerwell’s 
Mrs. Clackitt. Among the “ Téte-a-Téte ’’—as the lampoons 
were styled which periodically appeared in that magazine, 
with small-sized portraits of men notable in the social world 
coupled with those of their mistresses—our Bishop and a lady are 
represented in one bearing the title, ‘‘ The Patriotic Prelate and 
Mrs. H,” with the date, January 12, 1785. 

The following sprightly ‘‘ mémoir ”’ appears under the head- 
ing of this “ téte-a-téte ” : 

“Our present hero is a nobleman whose family has upon 
many occasions distinguished themselves in a civil and naval 
capacity and some of their names were recorded in the Nautical 
annals for their glorious achievements in the service of their 
country. The Patriotic Prelate is not behind hand in appearing 
conspicuous in the cause of liberty ; and though a dignitary of 
the Church, has united the military character with it, that he 


361 


362 The Earl Bishop 


might more effectually stand forth the champion of a cause 
he has heartily espoused. His eloquence upon many important 
occasions has been displayed in a neighbduring kingdom in 
vindication of those rights and privileges which he thought were 
in danger of being usurped. How far his Lordship’s suspicions 
were well or ill founded we will not pretend to determine : 
but having adopted an opinion, and united with a party, he 
has approved himself a zealous advocate for the cause in which 
he engaged. Upon this occasion we must observe, to our 
hero’s honour, we cannot trace the slightest ground for a sus- 
picion that he has been actuated by any selfish, any pecuniary, 
or any sordid views ; on the contrary, the line of conduct he has 
pursued in this respect in a great degree militated against his 
personal and his family interests. 

‘“ Pseudo-patriots without number we have seen bellow, rage 
and foam at the mouth, till the whole nation has been bit, and 
having caught the infection continues in a state of insanity 
for years ; but at length some pretty douceurs falling to their 
lot, their memory became treacherous, and they entirely forgot 
their country was upon the brink of destruction. The abyss 
was Closed, as well as their mouths, with a snug place or sine- 
cure ; and they thus happily prevented another Curtius en- 
gulphing himself to save his country. Thecontrast is as striking 
as it must be to our hero, who rises superior to all venal views, 
all pecuniary designs. Neither is he the echo of party or the 
whipper-in of faction. He acts upon a noble principle—the 
real good of his country—the sentiments that flow from him 
are his own, which he vouches as such, and 


“ “As on a rock 
that not the wrath of Jove can move his resolution stands.’ 


‘The Patriotic Prelate in private life is a most amiable charac- 
ter ; heis friendly, hospitable, charitableand humane. His guests 
require but one invitation to his table and their napkin is ever 
after placed; he is not pompous in distributing his alms, he 
aims not at being conspicuous in a parading list of subscribers 
or a public contribution ; but when he hears of a family in real 
distress he attends zncog. personally ; and in proportion as he 
discriminates their wants he relieves them. They are ignorant 
of their benefactor, but they are convinced of his unaffected 
benevolence. Such characters do credit to human nature ; 
and no opportunity should be missed of holding them exem- 
plarily to the opulent part of mankind, who in general squander 
thousands upon race-horses and gamblers, which might be 
appropriated with the best grace to those purposes which do 





The Earl Bishop 363 


honour to humanity, and make us at least in this respect superior 
to the brute creation. For what is rank and title, all the fas- 
tidious glare of pedigree, wealth, or even the pedantry of the 
schools, but froth and vanity ? Pope justly observes : 


““* A wit’s a feather, and a chief’s a rod. 
An honest man’s the noblest work of God.’ 


“ Our hero, with all those good and brilliant qualities, is not 
without his hobby-horse ; but every man says Tristram ‘has 
his hobby ’ ; why, then, should the Patriotic Prelate be obliged 
to pad it out of the common path, when it is allowed there is 
no doing without a Bidet. This premised we can assure our 
readers that our hero is neither a foxhunter or a gamester, a 
jockey or a Bacchanalian ; and yet he loves a cheerful glass as 
well as any man in all London, or Londonderry. No—neither 
of these pursuits constitute his hobby. ‘In the name of 
wonder,’ we think the reader says, ‘be explicit, come to the 
point, and tell us what it is.’ 

“ He is there in one word architecturally hobbied ; building is 
his passion, and he indulges it to the highest pitch ; but let it 
be observed at the same time he does not pursue it blindly, 
without taste or genius. Vitruvius himself does not blush at 
some of his plans and sections ; and he as judiciously carries 
them into execution as he designs them with gusto. 

“By this time our readers are made pretty well acquainted 
with our hero’s public and private character on all respects 
but one—that is in the capacity of a gallant ; and as we have 
introduced him as such in these memoirs, it may be thought 
high time that we should peep upon this side of his portrait, 
having delineated the other features very strikingly. Being 
of the same opinion ourselves we shall now enter upon this 
part of our task, which is the more disagreeable, as it may 
be considered the most invidious; and let it be remarked 
that under certain circumstances, a female connection may be 
fairly palliated, if not completely vindicated. In this point 
of view we think our hero stands—a connubial separation, 
let the cause have been what it may, places a man in a state 
of widowhood, which entitles him to another mate. This 
is precisely the case with respect to the Patriotic Prelate whose 
amours we are now going to touch upon. Were report to 
be credited, some of the finest women and of the first rank 
in Ireland have thought him not unworthy of being enrolled 
among the list of their imnamoratos, but as we consider these 
ladies’ names sacred we shall pass over their connections without 
any further comment in order to introduce the amiable Mrs. 


364 The Earl Bishop 


H—-— who does not take any particular pains to conceal her 
attachment to the Patriotic Prelate. 

“ This lady is the daughter of a reputable tradesman who gave 
her a genteel education, of which she availed herself and was 
pronounced a very accomplished girl before she had attained 
her fourteenth year. Her person now began to bespeak the 
woman, and at the same time it announced bordering upon 
maturity, it displayed such charms as few male observers 
could behold without emotion. She was tall and elegant in her 
figure, moved with peculiar grace and ease; her face was a 
regular oval, her eyes large, blue, and enchanting, where a 
thousand cupids lay in ambush. When she smiled a most 
engaging dimple presented itself to view ; but when she yielded 
to the full impulse of the risible muscles, fresh beauties appeared 
in two beautiful rows of teeth that were exhibited between 
the most solicitous pouting lips perhaps ever beheld. A 
female thus portrayed, at her juvenile time of life, could 
not fail having many admirers, and soon several suitors. Our 
heroine’s wavering untutored heart knew not where to fix. 
Vanity, the predominant passion of all the sex, failed not to 
throw in a caveat against prigs, puppies and fetits-maitres, as 
they “answered no end, and to no sex belonged.’ 

“ Neither would ambition let her listen to plebeians, attornies’ 
clerks, or attornies themselves ; their briefs were briefly dis- 
missed without any hearing, or at least set over to the next 
term. 

“ Whether this conduct was prudential or not, the reader must 
determine. Our heroine had a great taste for reading—not 
merely Novels, Plays and Romances, but History and the 
Belles Lettres with the approved poetical productions of the 
most celebrated English bards. Hence she had conceived 
a taste for learning, and of course an illiterate man was her 
peculiar aversion. In these sentiments men of taste and litera- 
ture failed not to meet her smiles, and amongst the foremost 
of these was the Rev. Mr. H——-. His person was engaging, and 
his physiognomy prepossessing, and his address polite and pre- 
vailing. Add to this his learning was extensive, and though 
he often displayed it, he always suppressed the pedant. Our 
heroine listened to his entreaties, and in a short time she be- 
came Mrs. H——. As usual, honeymoons succeeded ; but the 
Lunar revolutions of this description were not of long duration. 
The bridegroom soon became the very husband, cloyed with 
the charms of his bride who ere now sunk into the wife; 
and no sooner do these nominations apparently change than 
the fire-side becomes irksome to the lord and master, and 


The Earl Bishop 365 


probably my lady may be inclined to wear the breeches. Be 
this as it may, it was not long before a separation was agreed 
upon. Mrs. H——, being freed from the shackles of matri- 
mony, was at liberty to chuse another companion who could 
afford her more solace and comfort ; such a partner she met 
with in our hero, who discriminating all her merits and appre- 
ciating all her charms, testified his friendship as well as his 
passion, and they seem now to go hand in hand to promote our 
heroine’s felicity, who acknowledges that in the Patriotic 
Prelate she has met with a man after her own heart, and, if she 
could believe in predestination, whom nature formed to make her 
completely happy.”’ 

While this history is related with a light humour there is 
none the less a touch of true discernment in the writer’s appre- 
ciation of the Patriotic Prelate’s best points and characteristics. 

An instance showing his disinterested liberality of mind, 
as well as of purse, and the spontaneousness of his charitable 
actions, had lately occurred, and may be here recorded as 
narrated in the Hibernian Journal. A correspondent writes 
from Belfast (November 26, 1784): ‘“‘ The following is one of 
the many instances of the Earl of Bristol’s unlimited generosity : 
On the way lately from Downpatrick to Castle Ward (the seat 
of Viscount Bangor) through the parish of Saul, his Lordship 
observed unroofed walls which excited his curiosity to enquire 
what they were erected for. Being informed that they were 
designed for a Romish Chapel but that the indigence of the 
people prevented its further advancement, his Lordship im- 
mediately repaired to the priest’s place of abode, and laying 
aside the pomp of greatness, entered his humble cabin and 
generously presented him with ten guineas to enable him to 
prosecute the work.” 

It was the same generous spirit in the Bishop which led him 
to place at the disposal of his Roman Catholic neighbours 
for purposes of worship a room in the Mussenden Temple at 
Downhill, and to give specific instruction that this privilege 
should be continued after his death with the stipend of ten 
pounds a year to the priest, adding the further thoughtful 
proviso that his breakfast was to be prepared for him on Sundays, 
and also a feed for his horse. 

It is easy to understand how such kindly and considerate 
actions appealed to the hearts of the humbler among the 
Bishop’s Irish compatriots. 


VOL. I. 3 


CHAPTER XXXVII 


1785 


HILE at the beginning of the year 1785 the Town and 

Country Magazine set tongues wagging about the 

‘“ Patriotic Prelate,’ the Bishop is nevermore to be traced in 

the Irsh newspapers in the character of a Demagogue. For 

several years scarcely any mention of his name is to be found 
in them. 

The last item of news respecting him is at the end of 1784, 
and it is significant. At the approach of Christmas, the Bishop 
—perhaps affected by the genial season—announced, it was 
reported, that he thought he had “already gone far enough ”’ 
in the direction of political enterprise. 

This, however, cannot be taken to imply that he renounced 
one iota of his standard of reform, which in truth remained 
“immovable as the very rock of his Cathedral.’’ Fourteen 
years later he was still consistently advocating it, though no 
longer by public propaganda. Some reasons for his withdrawal 
from the arena of politics have already been suggested. That 
it was owing to fear, as was insinuated by his enemies, appears 
the less likely that Pitt had evidently no intention of counten- 
ancing his impeachment. It seems not improbable that some 
private intercourse with Pitt may have henceforth exercised 
a calming influence on the Bishop’s political energies ; and it 
may be noted that his propaganda in Ireland had never been 
directed against the young statesman—the son of his ideal 
leader—but rather against the evils of the system of govern- 
ment. Certainly as time went on, the Bishop’s antipathy to 
Fox inclined him the more to the side of Pitt. Indeed, in the 
Bishop’s latter years it was believed that a strong bond existed 
between him and Pitt. 

While the Bishop’s political pronouncements ceased, planting 
and farming at Downhill on a great scale still provided scope 
for his energies at the opening of the year 1785. He writes to 
Arthur Young : 


366 


The Earl Bishop 367 


“ Downhill, Coleraine, 
‘January 15, 1785. 


‘“ My dear Arthur, I am mortified, & should be really ashamed 
to see your entertaining letter so long unanswered, but that 
the multiplicity as well as variety of my occupations bereave 
me sometimes of the most pleasing ones. From sunrise to long 
after sunset [ am not a moment idle, either in mind or person, 
and I can venture to assure you that agriculture, being the basis 
of all public and private virtue as it banishes laziness, fortifies 
the body, leads to fair and honest procreation, provides sus- 
tenance, and multiplies the tenderest and most enduring ties 
in nature, has no little share both of my time and attention. 
Let 150 men daily employed, verify my assertion ; let the rocks 
which disappear & the grass which succeeds to them, corro- 
borate that evidence. But then what have I to do with the 
English plough ? Neither our soil, nor our climate, nor our 
labourers are the same; we are poor and you are rich; when 
industry has approximated a little of our wealth to yours, 
perhaps we may be tempted to adopt your luxury in agriculture, 
unless before that you shall have discovered your errors, and so 
saved us the trouble of retracting what we have not had time 
to adopt. As to my Presbyterians, I am glad you are modest 
enough to censure those whom you are honest enough to confess 
you donot know. All the harm which I find in them is that they 
love the rights of mankind ; and if, in pursuing them for them- 
selves, they refuse to participate with their fellow citizens 
(the Roman Catholics), I would join in your execrations, and 
set them a better example than hitherto they have received 
from our Church. : 

“Adieu! let me hear from you sometimes when you have 
nothing better to do, and tell Symonds, with my affectionate 
compliments, that I have recovered my lost map of the Pontine 
marshes, and will send it by the first opportunity. If you 
see the learned and good-humoured Rector (Reverend George 
Ashby) don’t let him forget your affectionate friend, 


ADRISTOL, 


A letter to Lady Erne next shows the Bishop at Downhill 
in high satisfaction with his surroundings. Lady Erne, 
living apart, though not formally separated from her husband, 
who kept her none too well supplied with money, was now at 
Nice, the guest of Lady Rivers, a lively lady of some sixty 
years, well known in the world of fashion at home and 
abroad. 

VOL. II. an 


368 The Earl Bishop 


“D. Hill, ; 
“ February 22, 1785. @ 
“My DEAREST Mary, 4 


surprise & spirits as those in which it was written, for tho’ you 
profess not to be strong, yet it is plain you are not low but 
are able to keep your ground, which to tell you a melancholy 
truth is more than I expected. The relief to your finances 
is probably some to your spirits, and as the little drafts upon 
them are more perplexing than large & regular ones, & as little 
Indulgences generally distress & puzzle one more than greater, 
I desire you wd keep an account of yr Postage both of letters 
you receive & of those you write, & draw upon me for the 
amount every six months. By this means you need not fear 
to drain yr own pocket & cannot fear to distress mine, whenever 
you travel. I will open another account with you: en atten- 
dant, enjoy your £100 & expect more when you want it. I 
communicated to the Viscount a scheme of adding to yr income 
fI00 a piece, but he answer’d me drily, when you was as 
good a Wife as you was a daughter he wd listen to the proposal. 
I cd have answered him by an inversion of his Rule, but @ quot 
Bon? .You say nothing of Lady Rivers* yet she says a great 
deal of you & gives us the best accounts of you :—poor Eliza- 
beth,t I fear this winter will bear very hard on her. Nice 
was much azurer than Pisa, & a much more salutary Climate— 
but the Tower of Babel has got among us & we must be dispers’d 
-—Frederickf has determin’d his profession for the Church, 
and I have now no thoughts of quitting Ireland where I am too 
happy to expect to be equally so anywhere else. My friends 
on the Continent die—no country is worth visiting when stript 
of them ; here J make new ones every day, & such as are warmly 
attach’d to me—ou bien je Réve. 

“Pray mention Madame Blondel§ to me all long, for her 
silence is become very mysterious. Mrs. Gage will be much 
flattered with yr recollections & still more with yr description 
—Elle est dune conversation bien douce, but too irritable for 


‘“ Your long letter of the 15th gave me almost as great 


_ * Lady Rivers was the wife of George Pitt, of Strathfieldsaye, first Lord Rivers, and the 
sister and heiress of Sir Richard Atkins, sixth Baronet, of Clapham. She was an old friend 
and contemporary of the Bishop’s sister, Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and a curious corre- 
spondence exists at Hinchingbrook relating to the association of these two ladies with 
Lord Sandwich. 


+ Lady Elizabeth Foster was travelling in Italy with the Duchess of Devonshire. 
Thus the whole family were ‘‘ dispers’d.”’ 


{ Frederick did not become aclergyman. Perhaps it was for this reason that he subse- 
quently incurred his father’s displeasure. 


§ Madame Blondel, the intimate friend of Turgot. 





Elizabeth Christian, Duchess of Devonshire, second daughter of fourth Earl of 
Bristola VMs (tirst\,.1776, Johnodhomas Posters MB isecondl,,), 
MoOO multe Dukesot. Devonchirewm wloode 


By_ Angelica Kauffmann. The head was painted at Naples, and the remainder 
finished “ after at Rome,” 1785. Portrait at Ickworth. 


[To face page 368, 





The Earl Bishop 369 


her own happyness or that of her friends. The Barnards* 
are going to Dublin, wch is a great loss to our Musical Society ; 
he has hir’d my farm at Banbrook 2 miles from hence, but the 
nearer the Church &c. &c. 

“Downhill is becoming Elegance itself—300,000 Trees 
without Doors upon all the banks & upon all the Rocks, & almost 
as many pictures & Statues within Doors count very well. I 
have had no gout this winter wch I attribute to Musick or 
harmony of mind. Everything is Redolent of Joy & youth 
& we commonly sit down to Table from 20 to 25. We have cold 
suppers, & a bottle of Champaign at each end of the table—the 
Songsters sing Ketches, & I go to Bed which just now invites. 
Dr. Barnard in imitation of his bishop has half concerts from 
Wednesday to Saturday, & yesterday we return’d—Adieu 
dear Mary, I shall make no scruple of writing to you now I 
pay for my own letters—.”’ 


Another letter to Arthur Young is dated from Downhill, 
March 9g, 1785. (‘‘ Life of Arthur Young,’ by M. Betham 
Edwards. Original letters now in British Museum.) 


“ Though I do not think my letters worth paying for, yet 
since you do & I have a leisure half hour, have at you. And 
in this duel of our pens who would expect a Bishop of the Es- 
tablished Church to. be an advocate for the anti-Episcopal 
schismatics called Presbyterians, whilst a man whose religion 
lies in his plough & his garden—that is with the goddess of the 
one and the god of the other—to be so zealous an opponent ? 
My defence rests principally on this point, that they have as 
good a right to differ from me as my ancestors from our great 
Ancestors, or the Church Established above 1,200 years before. 
As for their political principles, I think their system of parity, 
& their practise in most parts of Europe, infinitely more favour- 
able to political liberty than ours—witness Germany and Switzer- 
land, & the short reign of old Nol. 

“You say: But their political principles never become 
powerfully active without involving their country in a civil 
war. And are there not two words to that bargain ? and does 
not the pot call the ketile &c. &. You might as well object the 
same to all good citizens when oppressed by bad ones; yo: 
may as well object the same to the first Brutus, & to the second, 
you may as well object to Luther & Melancthon. Did the 


* Of the Barnards we hear more later. Dr. Barnard was son of Barnard, Bishop of 
Derry, our Bishop’s predecessor. 


370 The Earl Bishop 


Presbyterians ask anything unreasonable when they desired to 
have thety nonsense tolerated as well as any other nonsense ? 
For if it be nonsense it is paying 2¢ too great a compliment, & 
ourselves too bad a one, to persecute it ; and if it be good sense, 
surely for one’s own sake as well as that of our neighbours it 
deserves a better reception than persecution. 

“When I see Switzerland & Germany pacified for above 
150 years after throat cutting for 140, by the single means of 
a reciprocal toleration, & by the Pacta or Conventa of 1648, 
(the Peace of Westphalia) which allowed them to share those 
loaves & fishes alternately monopolized by each party, I must 
confess if I were Frederick the First of Oceana or of Atlantis, 
I should not hesitate to begin my reign with that system with 
which most sovereigns are compelled to close theirs ! 

“ The rights of humanity, dear Arthur, the rights of humanity 
form a great article in my Creed, & that religion, or sect of 
religion which can teach otherwise may come from below but 
surely did not descend from above. 

“Believe me our whirlwind is not past—perhaps ’tis only 
beginning—yet 300 labourers with their spades fill my mind 
with as pleasing & satisfactory ideas as the whole Coleraine 
Battalion with their muskets before my door. If in this whirl- 
wind I can direct the storm, so much the better for humanity 
but not for the lank-haired divinity nor the frizzle-topped divinity 
nor the hocus-pocus divinity. 

“T love agriculture because it makes good citizens, good 
husbands, good fathers, good children; because it does not 
leave a man time to plunder his neighbours, & because by its 
plenty, it bereaves him of the temptation ; & I hate an Aris- 
tocratical Government, because it plunders those honest 
fellows: because it is idle; it is insolent ; it values itself on 
the merits of it; & because, like an overbearing torrent, the 
farther it is removed from its fountain head & the less it partakes 
of its original purity, the more desolation it carries with it, & 
because, like a stinking stagnated pool, it inflicts those very 
disorders which it was the chief merit of its spring & fountain- 
head to heal & remove. Adieu, ever affectionately, BRISTOL.” 


By which interesting effusion the Bishop may be interpreted 
in brief as meaning to declare : 

I am a lover of humanity, not of creeds. 

I take as much pleasure in watching my 300 labourers 
(Roman Catholics) as in receiving the compliments of the Coler- 
aine Volunteers (Presbyterians). I stand for freedom of 
thought, freedom of Ireland from its narrow clique of borough- 


The Earl Bishop 371 


mongers ; the storm raging for reform of Parliament is not 
yet over; when reform comes, so much the better for the 
country, but not for those who have assumed the right to 
regard themselves as the sole repositories of truths—whether 
Presbyterians, Anglicans, or Roman Catholics. 

Next in sequence comes the following letter, addressed to 
“ John Symonds, Esq., St. Edmund’s Hill, Bury St. Edmunds.”’ 
(The originals of this and of three other letters from the Bishop 
to Symonds included in this book came into the possession 
of the Rev. William Symonds, who died in 1918. The Rev. 
Lord Manners Hervey is their present owner.) 

Among the Bishop’s former neighbours in Suffolk none 
enjoyed his favour more than the learned and accomplished 
John Symonds, Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, who 
was a son of a former rector of Horringer : 


“DEAR SYMONDS, 

“Tam well authoriz’d in telling you that our Primate 

is declining fast, (Archbishop Robinson did not die till 1794) 
and for my own part I could wish that so superior & liberal a 
man as your friend Dr. Watson could be his successor. Our 
Vice-Roy by all accounts would make a point of it. He has 
no kival to dread on this side of the water but Hotham, Bishop 
of Clogher. Jf would not exchange Derry for ten Primacies, 
neither for Strasburgh nor Toledo—but I can give your friend 
some intelligence of it which may not be authentically obtain’d 
elsewhere—it’s present Income is only £8,300—it may without 
severity be rais’d to £10,000—but there is a House built upon it, 
& by the Statutes of this country the whole cost is to be refunded 
by the Successor of the Builder to Him or to his executors— 
the cost of this Palace was £16,000 & the successor is allow’d 
three years to repay it—one half of the sum at the end of the 
first year, one fourth more at the close of the second year and 
the last fourth at the end of the third year. In three years 
therefore he will have receiv’d £30,000 & must pay £16,000. 
The Patronage is an immense one, not less than {17,000 a year ; 
the house an handsome one, is in a fine country, full of gentle- 
men’s seats, & it’s distance 62 miles from Dublin—if he chooses 
Politicks he may have enough ; but if he declines them quod 
potius spero & will reside much in his diocese, he will be a more 
wealthy & a more powerful man—Tantum! I sent you word 
by Arthur Young that I had procur’d you the map of the Pon- 
tine marshes, & if you retain’d your wish to possess it, would 
take care to forward it, but I have no answer—perhaps this 
letter may procure one—Adieu—are you' inexorable upon a 


372 The Earl Bishop 


visit to Ireland ? The large yarn vessels are every day sailing 
from Liverpool to Derry, Coleraine & Belfast. Two days carry 
you from London to Liverpool in a Diligence & from thence 
either 36 hours or 40 will land you in the Coleraine River under 
my park wall. This is but a short journey to see an old friend, 
& if on the decline of life you would wish to adopt the Profession 
of your Father, for which I know not of any man more fit, I 
have from £500 to £1,100 a year at your service together with the 
invariable esteem of your ever affectionate Friend BRISTOL. 
i Deen Derny, 
“March 25, 1785.” 


Soon after this, the Bishop’s redundant health and vitality 
were exchanged for severe illness and prostration. He writes 
to Lady Erne : 

The letter is addressed to : 


“Viscountess Erne, 
“a Villa Pitt, 
‘““prés de Lyons 
noah gah etal lat 
oN al FUND 
“May 30th, ’85. 
“Would it be salutary for you, my dearest Mary, to go to 
Spa ? my Physician who is now at my bedside after a most 
severe fever talks of sending me there. I am not determin’d, 
but should like to know your feelings on the subject—the 
journey should cost you nothing & you might live there with 
me if you liked it. Did I send you word poor Dr. Monck is 
dead & succeeded by Dr. Burroughs ?’”’ (There were two Dr. 
Burroughs who were successively Archdeacons of Derry— 
father and son. We hear much of the latter in after years.) 
“Coulthurst in the scramble gets a living of £500 a year, & 
I believe will be married next week to Miss Canning a very 
pretty & still more amiable woman—He had a narrow escape 
from another with whom he could not live a month—all his 
Family much oblig’d to me—Poor Fitzgerald is quite broke 
and gone off to Mayo*—his wife remains in Dublin and his 
daughter deposited at Mr. Conolly’s—The Downhill in greater 


* His nephew, “ Fighting Fitzgerald.’’ Among his redeeming merits was that of being 
an affectionate husband and father. The lady here mentioned was his second wife. His 
unfortunate daughter remained in the care of the Right Hon. Thomas and Lady Louisa 
Conolly (a daughter of the second Duke of Richmond). The fate of her father, to whom 
she was greatly attached, being purposely concealed from Miss Fitzgerald, she long re- 
mained in ignorance of it, until one day, accidentally coming across an account in a news- 
paper of his death, she became aware of the facts. The shock and horror so greatly 
affected her that she never recovered and died soon afterwards. 


The Earl Bishop 373 


beauty than ever, & 300,000 trees planted without one of them 
failing—scarce a stone, nay not a stone, left upon the Demesne, 
& the Castle getting a Surtout of Freestone with the richest 
Corinthian Pillasters that cd be executed—but you’ll think 
yr poor father raving in a feverish delirium—Frederick has been 
indulg’d with going to Handel’s Commemoration, the most 
sumptuous musick jubilee ever exhibited—607 instruments in 
Westminster Abbey—what a Crash! write mean exact state of 
yr health and direct to me in St. James’s Square. Adieu. 

‘““T have this moment been rubb’d all over with Laudanum 
especially on the Pitt of the stomach & drench’d with Aether 
by my poor Physician. I conclude, tho’ he does not confess 
it to me, he took the disorder for the gout in the stomach and 
wishes to avert a return. I reckon I must pass the winter in a 
warm climate, & so I hope will you—I forgot, & no wonder, to 
tell you Miss Jackson* is married to the eldest son of Robert 
Alexander—the father in a Rage, but had left her by herself 
to herself in Coleraine where she was allow’d to give Balls & 
to frequent them till she went in a Balloon to this Parsonage— 
you see my spirits are as good as ever, but indeed the Flesh is 
weak, & this is the . . .(?) day since I am confin’d to my bed.” 

When recovered from this illness sufficiently to travel, the 
Bishop proceeded in July, 1785, to Bath for the benefit of his 
health en route for the Continent. Huis absence from Ireland 
in the summer of 1785 proves an alibi for him against any 
accusation of his playing the firebrand there at this juncture 
when the country was in the throes of a fresh political crisis. 
During successive months from February to August in this 
year Pitt’s Commercial Propositions, by which he hoped to 
ameliorate the condition of Irish trade, formed the chief theme 
of political discussion and intrigue. As the Irish newspapers, 
which the year before constantly chronicle the doings and sayings 
of the Bishop, are totally silent with regard to him during the 
events of 1785, while his private letters contain no reference 
to the subject, his attitude throughout does not appear. 

If, indeed, he were inclined to take sides in this new conflict, 
his illness, it may be supposed, would prevent his playing an 
active part in it when it was nearing its acute stage ; and he 
had left Ireland at the date of the actual crisis when he was 
designated as intriguing there. Nevertheless, the fact that his 
personality as a political agitator still loomed in the public 
imagination is indicated in a curious manner. 


* Anne, daughter of the Right Hon. Richard Jackson, of Coleraine, married in 17385, 
Nathaniel Alexander, D.D., afterwards Bishop of Meath. He was the eldest son of Robert 
Alexander, of Boom Hail, co. Londonderry, younger brother of the first Earl of Caledon. 


374 The Earl Bishop 


A caricature published in London and drawn by Sayer, whose 
talent was exerted in the interest of Pitt’s Government by turn- 
ing Fox and the Opposition into ridicule, represents Fox and 
the Bishop as conspiring together. They are depicted in a 
close embrace, each with one arm round the other’s neck, while 
each holds a firebrand in one hand. The Irish Channel flowing 
between their respective feet, Fox stands in England, the 
Bishop in Ireland, the two forming a bridge from Holyhead to 
Dublin—a rival to that which Pitt by his ill-fated Propositions 
designed to erect between the two countries. Under the 
picture is “‘ August the rst, 1785,’ August the rst being a date 
significant as the anniversary of the memorable opening of the 
Gates of Londonderry after the siege. It was also the Bishop’s 
birthday. 

It was in August of this year that the clamour raised in 
Ireland against Pitt’s Amended Propositions reached the 
climax which resulted in their total abandonment. The 
manceuvres of Fox in opposition to Pitt were from first to 
last in this business so double as to show him in a light which 
casts discredit on his honesty. When Pitt’s original Proposi- 
tions were submitted earlier in the year, Fox stimulated the 
hostility of the English Merchants to them, on the ground that 
Ireland was being made the arbiter of English Commercial 
interests. When Pitt, having withdrawn his Propositions 
mainly owing to the opposition, submitted them in an amended 
and enlarged form, Fox turned round and, posing as the 
protector of Irish rights, denounced, as an attack on the Irish 
Constitution, a proviso in the Amended Propositions which 
bound Ireland to adopt the navigation laws of England. He 
had well calculated that it would be easy to awaken the jealousy 
of the Irish House of Commons, and soon the factions which 
had lately raged against each other forgot their differences 
in a common cry that resounded from one end of Ireland to 
the other. Whether or not there was any truth in Sayer’s 
insinuation that Fox made overtures to the Bishop and 
counted on his support, there was in fact no need for a fire- 
brand in Ireland to set the country ablaze. Every man calling 
himself a “‘ patriot ’’ was against Pitt’s Amended Propositions. 
Grattan was actually on the same side with his rival Flood, 
with Napper Tandy, Newenham, and the most ardent reformers 
of the Irish Parliament. Probably the point of Sayer’s joke 
lay merely in the fact that Fox and the Bishop who were known 
to be enemies were now supposed to be united in a common 
bond of disaffection to Government, and thus metaphorically 
to be thrown into each other’s arms. The Bishop, however, 


The Earl Bishop 375 


as we have said, does not appear to have taken any part in 
the controversy. He hated Fox, and not long afterwards 
actually commissioned a sculptor in Italy to produce an alle- 
gorical representation of Pitt destroying the Hydra, Fox. 
Fox on his part abused the Bishop and called him “a madman, 
and a dishonest one.’”’ But whatever may be said against the 
Bishop, his political honesty at least was _ irreproachable, 
whereas of Fox even his warmest admirers could not say the 
same. The Bishop, it is clear, realized how great was the 
error of Irish patriots in trusting their interests-to Fox instead 
of to Pitt. The red herring which Fox for his own purpose 
trailed before them served but to increase the general confusion. 
But the Bishop’s open intervention in Irish politics had ceased. 
Some years later, in a letter to Arthur Young, we find him with 
characteristic humour suggesting the aspect in which his past 
efforts as an Irish Leader appeared to himself in retrospect. 
Comparing the great agriculturist’s schemes, often more idealistic 
than practical, with his own political remedies, he says: ‘ You 
are aS great a quack in farming as I once was in politics.” 
The Bishop’s “‘ quack’ medicines were at least sincerely pre- 
scribed, and were as likely to be efficacious as the remedies of 
self-interested professional physicians 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 


1784-1785 
LADY BRISTOL AND LOUISA 


Nets the Bishop in Ireland was open-handed with his 

money in all directions, the establishment of Lady Bristol 
in England was conducted on as economical a method as was 
compatible with her position and her residence at Ickworth. 
The Bishop seems to have taken little heed about keeping 
the house at Ickworth in repair, as he intended it to be super- 
seded by a new one which was to be designed by himself on a 
great scale. 

Lady Bristol, during the three years in which we have 
followed the Bishop’s career since he left her, led a very retired 
life at Ickworth. With her lived her youngest daughter, Lady 
Louisa, who enjoyed none of the social amusements customary 
for girls of her station. Lessons in music and painting from 
foreign masters resident in Bury, and the visits of her sisters 
or of her uncle, General William Hervey, constituted her only 
contact with the outside world. 

The Bishop seems to have written to his wife from time to 
time on domestic matters and to have lectured her on the 
duty of economy. This was the more unreasonable that, 
while he was engrossed with his schemes and hobbies in Ireland, 
the necessary remittances for the upkeep of Ickworth were 
not always supplied with regularity. Lady Bristol complains 
of this state of things in letters addressed to her daughter 
Elizabeth in Italy, and she evidently acquired a reputation for 
inhospitality among her neighbours through no fault of her 
own. 

A curious side-light on Ickworth and its hostess at this time 
is supplied by the journals of a young Frenchman, Francois 
de la Rochefoucauld (one of the two sons of the Duc de Lian- 
court Rochefoucauld, who during 1784-1785 were living at 
Bury St. Edmunds with a tutor, Monsieur de Lazouski, a friend 


376 


The Earl Bishop 377 


of Arthur Young and Dr. Symonds). The Duc de Liancourt 
resided at Bury ten years later as a refugee. 

‘“ Bientot aprés notre arrivée 4 Bury,” chronicles the youth, 
“nous fimes des nouvelles connaissances . Lady Bristol 
la femme de l’évéque de Derry. C’est une femme de cinquante 
ans qui a beaucoup voyagé en France et en Italie et qui parle 
trés-bien les deux langues. On la dit de beaucoup d’esprit, et 
elle est grande et d’une taille noble. Elle a été forte femme. 
Son mari eu pour son nom Lord Hervé. C’est un homme 
d’une fortune immense. [1 est singuliérement intriguant, d’une 
caractére vif et de l’esprit, mais on lui reproche de n’avoir pas 
de fermeté, et de projets arrétés dans la téte. I] est a présent 
en Ireland ou il fait grand bruit. Il veut changer la forme du 
gouvernement ... et protéger les Catholics; veut qu ils 
participent dans la liberté en nommant aussi des représentants- 
toutes choses d’autant plus délicates gu’elles font d’ependre le 
bonheur de bien des gens. . . L’ondit généralement qu’il ne 
réussira pas, parce qu il n’a ‘pas les qualités nécessaires pour 
inspirer la confiance entiére, et conduire un projet a son but, 
mais il fait ce qu’il peut, et fait grand bruit 4 présent. Il 
a la téte vive, ce qui lui vient, dit-on, de sa famille. On dit 
que les Hervé* sont un peu fous, et M. de Voltaire étant on 
Angleterre, disoit qu’1l y voyoit trois espéces de gens—les 
hommes, les femmes, et les Hervé, ce qui preuve bien que de 
tous tems ils ont en quelque chose de singulier. 

“La Comtesse de Bristol pendant tout ce tems-la est restée 
dans la maison de campagne avec sa fille Lady Louisa, quia peut- 
étre Ig ou 20 ansf et parle fort bien francais; elle n’a pas passé 
son hiver a Londres comme la plupart des autres gentilhommes 
des environs, mais nous n’avons pas gagnés grand chose, car 
nous n’y avons été diner qu’une fois pendant cing mois et fait 
quatres visites; encore ne l’avons nous vue que deux fois 
quoi-qu’elle fit chez elle, ce qui est contre Pusage des Anglais ; 
quand ils sont chez eux, on peut toujours les voir. Je suppose 
que Lady Bristol a pris cette usage fort commode de ses voyages 
en France, mais qu'elle n’a pas rapportée beaucoup d’hos- 
pitalité pour les voyageurs. t 


* Here is another source for this oft-repeated adage. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 
Lord Chesterfield, Lady Townshend and Voltaire all share the reputation of having 
originated it. 


+ She was, in fact, barely seventeen at this time. 


t Of Lady Bristol’s brother, Sir Charles Davers of Rushbrook, Member of Parliament 
for Bury at this time, the young Count reports that he was very much liked in the town, 
because everyone recognized that his conduct was always guided by sincerity, and “ by 
his principles of a very honest man,’ ’ but that he never made compliments and did not 
like others to make them tohim. ‘‘ He lives ina large house which he keeps up (assez mal) 
and his park is also neglected.”’ 


378 The Earl Bishop 


‘Elle demeure a trois milles de Bury dans une assez vilaine 
mais grande maison. Son parc est immense, il a neuf mille 
acres qui vont un peu plus grands que nos arpents. Tout 
ce parc ne constitue qu’une pelouse d’un superbe gazon, 
parc semé d’une grande quantité de trés-beaux arbres. Il 
y a dans ce parc beaucoup de daims qui ne sont que pour 
lagrément.’’* 


The simple manner of life led by mother and daughter at 
Ickworth is shown by a letter from Lady Bristol to Lady Erne, 
dated January 4, 1784. 

Louisa, now approaching seventeen, is reading ‘“ Clarissa 
Harlowe,” carefully bowdlerised by her mother, who writes: 
‘‘T tore out one letter of Lovelace a little too descriptive of 
the night he got into her room, tho’ she got him out of it 
with prayers & entreaties without his effecting his pur- 
pose. Louisa mentioned the Lacune and I acknowledged to 
have made it. I am afraid she is at present a little too éprs 
with Lovelace wch is too natural, & the only danger of the 
Book ; but I think & hope that as his perfidious, treacherous 
character is unfolded more & more in the last volume, it will 
give her different feelings ...& a proper abhorrence of 
him. I let her read it some part of the morning. After dinner 
(our little dinner in the library) we come into my dressing room, 
where we play at piquet till tea-time—She plays on the piano- 
forte whilst I drink tea—which saves her a temptation & gives 
me a pleasure, & about half an hour after seven she takes her 
work & I read to her till she is summon’d by Madlle—one 
Book of [iad—a little talk on the notes on it after it is over 
generally fills up this space. She then retires, and I read or 
play with great amusement & without any heaviness till after 
eleven.” 


Lady Louisa, leading so restricted a life, without amuse- 
ments or companions, when she grew to be eighteen suffered 
from a nervous breakdown. Lady Bristol, not sorry to have a 
good excuse for bringing her daughter to London, “‘ took French 
leave’? and came up to the house in St. James’s Square—it 
was no longer let—in order to consult a London doctor. “I 
wrote to your father on our arrival here,” she writes to Lady 
Erne (Feb. 25, 1785), “an. account -of-. your sister. &@ my 
motive for coming to this house which I hope will meet with 
his approbation.”” The celebrated Court physician, Dr. 


* From this it appears that although the late Earl had bequeathed the deer to his 
mistress, his successor at Ickworth had renewed the herd. 


The Earl Bishop 379 


Farquhar, “ after a very delicate examination ’’ pronounced that 
Lady Louisa had “‘no dangerous symptom,” but that “‘ her 
whole frame was shatter’d by an irritation of nerves,’ and 
prescribed ‘‘ mineral waters, moderate exercise, moderate & 
cheerful amusements &c.”” The tact which made Dr. Farquhar’s 
fortune in the great world is conspicuous in the last item of his 
advice. Thus we find that, though the ladies went to “no 
publick places & kept country hours,’’ they saw a good deal of 
the best company in a quiet way. ‘‘ Mr. de Woronzow came 
twice and brought his children,’ ‘“‘ Lady Stormont (of Paris 
fame) was so good as to come to me directly, altho’ Dss 
of Devonshire was here this morning, & looks as healthy as a 
milk-maid. Lord Mulgrave has been very good to metoo... 
he has told me that Lord Cornwallis is appointed to the Govern- 
ment of Bengal—Our friend Lady Macartney is all happiness 
at Lord M’s return. .. . Again we pass’d yesterday evening 
at Lady Camelford’s with a cheerful society, & staid till ten 
o'clock, Louisa was pretty well. Tell your father that Lord 
Camelford desir’d me to apply to him for some papers that he 
had lent him. As I heard Fred mention a parcel from your 
Father to him perhaps he has left it somewhere in Town, & 
can give orders for its being deliver’d. I say nothing of 
politics, nor of another event in ye highest sphere wch is too 
delicate to talk of at all (George III.’s first attack of madness) 
Lord Strathaven’s match with Lady Car. Spencer* is at last 
quite off—the Dss of Bedford says she knows nothing about 
it, but that it went off as it came on, & that she is ordered to 
say that he is a very pretty kind of man.”’ 


Here the curtain falls on Lady Bristol and Louisa in the 
enjoyment of their brief but exhilarating sojourn in St. James’s 
Square amid the surroundings of the fashionable world. 


* Lady Caroline Spencer, daughter of George, fourth Duke of Marlborough, by Lady 
Caroline his wife, daughter of John, fourth Duke of Bedford, and of the above-mentioned 
Duchess of Bedford. 


CHAPTER XXXIX 


EFORE following the Bishop on his travels in the years 
1785 and 1786 it seems appropriate to review his manner 
of living at Downhill, and to recall the stories that have been 
told in connection with it during the period preceding his depar- 
ture. Those years, throughout which we have traced the 
Bishop’s residence at Downhill, were the palmy years of his 
hospitalities. Later—after the death of Mrs. Mussenden—his 
residence there was fitful and unsettled, when a new building 
supplied a new toy to engross his fancy during the few years 
he remained in Ireland. We have already had a glimpse of the 
Bishop’s hospitality at Downhill and of the musical reunions 
which he encouraged among his neighbours. He entertained 
on a large scale without distinction of creed or party. Presby- 
terian Ministers were as welcome as clergy of the Established 
Church, and the Bishop liked both to meet at his table. 
On one occasion he pitted the opposing parties against each 
other in a manner highly characteristic of his whimsical 
humour. 

A Nonconformist minister (Rev. Classon Porter) has re- 
corded the tradition that one beautiful summer’s evening the 
Bishop proposed after dinner to his numerous guests that as 
the weather was so delightful they should adjourn from the 
dinner table to the splendid strand of Magilligan, which lies 
immediately below Downhill. The idea was cordially adopted, 
and the entire party went out for a stroll upon the beach. As 
they passed the stables the Bishop, unobserved, ordered his 
grooms to saddle all the horses, of which he had a great number, 
and bring them down to the strand. When the guests saw the 
horses following after them they could not imagine what was 
meant, until the Bishop enlightened them by proposing that his 
clergy and the Presbyterian ministers should forthwith ride 
together two and two a series of equestrian races on the beach, 
and that he himself should start the several batches of com- 


380 


The Earl Bishop 381 


petitors. Thus challenged, neither of the parties could refuse ; 
and the rival clergy had nothing for it but to run with polite- 
ness, if not with patience, the race that was set before them. 
In every instance the Presbyterian ministers were victorious. 
The Established clergy were generally large, portly men, more 
accustomed to drive than to ride ; and many of them tumbled 
off their horses, to the great amusement of their diocesan ; 
whilst the Presbyterian ministers being better equestrians, and 
of lighter build, easily won every race. The Bishop laughed 
heartily at the discomfiture of his Church, and closed the comical 
scene by saying good-humouredly that he must establish a 
riding-school for the benefit of his clergy. 

Another story of a similar character is told of the Bishop. 
A valuable living in his gift becoming vacant, he invited a 
number of the fattest of his clergy to dinner, and after they had 
well dined proposed that they should race for the living, pledg- 
ing himself that whoever won should obtain it. The place he 
selected for the contest, however, was sinking sand; thus, as 
the competitors proceeded each sank deeper and deeper in, with 
the result that, as the Bishop had anticipated, no one succeeded 
in reaching the winning-post, or, of course, in receiving the vacant 
living. 

But if he would seem to have little regard for the wealthier 
members of his clergy, who, as has been noted in an earlier 
chapter, often resided far away from their parishes, the Bishop 
was extremely considerate to poor curates. He set apart for 
their special accommodation a large suite of rooms at Downhill, 
which he called the Curates’ Corridor—it is so called to this 
day —and they were always the most welcome guests at his 
table. 

Stories have come down of the drinking of toasts at Down- 
hill. Mr. Saurin, a curate, had a toast which he was in the 
habit of giving regularly at Downhill. It was a toast which 
embodied a wish “‘ perhaps not unnatural for a curate to enter- 
tain, but one that few curates would have had the candour so 
explicitly to avow.”’ It was simply “‘a rot among the rectors.”’ 
The idea always amused the Bishop, and in due course he made 
Mr. Saurin a rector. When that gentleman was dining at 
Downhill for the first time after he got his rectory, the Bishop 
as usual called upon him for his toast, saying: ‘‘ I believe, Mr. 
Saurin, there is a toast which you have been in the habit of 
giving us on these occasions ; if you please we will take it now.”’ 
“Oh, my lord,” said the newly-appointed rector, “ since last 
I had the pleasure of dining here, your lordship has given me 
reason to change my toast. I ask you no longer to drink ‘A 

VOL. II. A 


382 The Earl Bishop 


rot among the rectors’ ; ask you to drink, ‘ Patience among the 
Curates.’ ”’ 

In order to vary the monotony of toast drinking, the Bishop 
instituted a novelty associated with it which made the obser- 
vance interesting and amusing. He requested each lady present 
at table to give as a toast the name of some gentleman present, 
and to connect with it the name of an appropriate song. With 
reference to this custom an instance of the Bishop’s ready tact 
is related. On one occasion the beautiful Mrs. Mussenden, 
being on a visit to Downhill, was called upon for her toast and 
its accompaniment. In reply she gave the name of a Presby- 
terian minister who was present, Mr. Blair, and along with it 
the song called ‘‘ The Wild Irishman.’’ Mr. Blair was evidently 
not pleased with the character thus assigned to him, whereupon 
the Bishop tactfully interposed, and telling Mrs. Mussenden that 
Mr. Blair was not an Irishman but a Scotsman (which was the 
case), he proposed they should drink, not Mr. Blair and “ the 
Wild Irishman,’’ but Mr. Blair and the “ Flowers of Edinburgh.” 
To these innocent stories of the Bishop as host, truth necessitates 
the addition of an unsavoury one. It is told how, suspecting the 
fidelity of a lady guest, the Bishop strewed flour across the 
threshold of her bedroom and so traced the liaison. Reference 
has already been made to the sudden illness to which the Bishop 
was subject. On one occasion, however, he feigned illness 
—presumably to test the sincerity of the doctors. The leading 
physicians in Derry were summoned to his bedside one after 
the other. At last a young doctor, after a cursory examina- 
tion, said candidly: ‘“‘Get up, my lord, you know perfectly 
well there is nothing the matter with you; you have been 
making game of the faculty of Derry.’”’ The Bishop’s answer 
was to make the young man his private physician ; and, not 
limiting his patronage to that, it is said he obtained a knighthood 
for his protégé, who became Sir Robert Caldwell. 

The resourcefulness of Doctor Caldwell, combined with Irish 
humour, must have specially appealed to the Bishop. Once 
when the latter lay seriously ill of quinsy at Downhill, the doctor 
had recourse to an extraordinary remedy. He sent for the cook 
and said to him: ‘‘ The Bishop is dangerously ill. But I have 
decided on a method of treatment which will succeed, and I 
' have to ask you when I send for you not to be annoyed, no 
matter what may take place,’ adding, as if it were an after- 
thought, “‘ by the way, prepare a little porridge lightly boiled.” 
The man duly prepared the porridge and brought it to the 
Bishop’s room. The doctor was in waiting, and after examin- 
ing the dish, angrily asked the cook what he meant by bringing 


The Earl Bishop 383 


such stuff. Did he call it porridge? It was nothing but 
abominable rubbish which he had no right to bring to his 
lordship. He then dashed the porridge over the cook’s head 
and face, causing the poor man to look so ridiculous that the 
Bishop burst into a hearty fit of laughter. The result was just 
as the doctor had calculated—the swelling in the throat burst 
and a complete cure followed. 

It is further related that it was not long before the doctor had 
“a taste of the Bishop’s quality.’”’ The Bishop made some 
arrangement for the doctor to travel with him to Italy. He 
was to join him in Dublin on a certain day. The doctor went 
thither, and found the Bishop gone, and received a letter 
directing him to proceed to England. He did so, and on his 
arrival he found a similar letter awaiting him full of explanations, 
and regrets so plausible that he gave them the fullest credence. 
The letter appointed a rendezvous in France. On reaching 
his destination there, he was handed a still further letter. By 
this time his patience and his funds were exhausted, and he 
returned to Ireland ‘‘ a sadder and a wiser man.” 

Lord Charlemont tells a story of the Bishop returning to 
Ireland from England through Scotland, and being wind-bound 
at Portpatrick. The Bishop was unwilling to sup by himself, 
and sent for the Exciseman to keep himcompany. After supper 
he began to discuss political subjects, and after a severe abuse 
of Governments at large he at length attacked the King in a 
manner so violent and indecent as to make the poor Exciseman 
tremble. Sensible of the effect he had produced, and desirous 
to pursue his blow : “ Why, friend,’’ added he, ‘‘ you do not seem 
to relish my discourse. Do you not think the King a tyrant ? 
The trembling officer replied that such matters were far too high 
for his contemplation. ‘‘ He is a tyrant,’ pursued the Bishop, 
“and I would not scruple to plunge a dagger in his heart.”’ 
The poor man instantly left the room in the highest degree of 
trepidation, and, after a sleepless night, waited early in the 
morning upon his patron and neighbour the Earl of Stair. 
(John, fifth Earl of Stair, died 1789), to whom he communicated 
what had passed, and begged his advice whether he should not, 
according to the tenor of his oath, give immediate information 
to the nearest Justice. Lord Stair, who was well acquainted 
with the Bishop’s character, assured the good man that he might 
rest in peace ; and that from that quarter such language was 
of no consequence, and desired him to take no further notice 
ae 

Lord Stair, it may be supposed, knew the Bishop well enough 
to understand that while he enjoyed playing the part of a stage 

VOL. II. Yh 


384 The Earl Bishop 


braggadocio with dramatic effect before his timid audience, he 
was likely next morning to forget the scene he had enacted 
after supper the night before. 

Popular rumour possibly made its additions to the stories 
which centred round the Bishop’s name. He is said to have 
consulted seers, and old women, reputed to foretell the future. 
On one occasion he went completely disguised so that it was 
impossible to recognize him; and as he was besides totally 
unknown in the locality, the woman he went to see could not 
possibly have guessed who he was. On his coming to her hut, 
the witch looked hard at him, and asked him who he was, but | 
he gave her no answer. “ Ah, sure,’ she said, continuing to- 
gaze at her strange visitor, “‘ you are the Devil himself—or 
else,’ she added after a pause, “‘ you are the Bishop of 
Derry.” 

In the Bishop’s time there was a tradition that a portion of 
the written prophesies of St. Columkill had never seen the light, 
and that the events which they foretold yet remained to be 
fulfilled. The Bishop, so reports the chronicler of the story, 
caused careful inquiries to be made as to the whereabouts of 
these ancient manuscripts, and succeeded in discovering the 
hiding-place where they were concealed, and the casket in which 
they were deposited. Tradition, however, said that the casket 
was only to be opened by a man who had not been born, and 
who rode a horse which had not been foaled. The Bishop was 
held to fulfil both these conditions. He had come into the world 
by means of the Cesarean operation, and he rode a horse which 
had entered into existence in a similar manner. The Bishop 
solemnly opened the casket in the presence of witnesses, when, 
to the terror of all present, there appeared a number of small, 
hissing serpents, but no sooner did they touch the ground than 
they perished. A further examination revealed a small, beau- 
tifully bound book of the prophecies. The Bishop, after a brief 
perusal of it, was observed to grow suddenly pale, and hastily 
closed the book. Whether it contained some mysterious warn- 
ing against further search into the unknown never transpired. 
But it is certain that the Bishop immediately caused the casket 
to be locked and sealed, and returned it to its original hiding- 
place ; and so it is believed to have remained untouched from 
that day to this. 

The above stories are here touched with a light hand; but 
to others more damaging Charlemont has given the great 
weight of his name. It should be borne in mind, however, 
that the two following, which he relates he had from Mr. O’Neill, 
give only a one-sided version, the colouring of which is hkely 


The Earl Bishop 385 


to have been blackened both by the original narrator and the 
retailer ; Charlemont, indeed, for all his profession of impar- 
tiality, was obviously swayed by his antipathy to a rival and a 
foe. 

“Induced by caprice rather than by sentiment,’’ says 
Charlemont (Hist. MSS. Commission, Earl of Charlemont, 
Vol. I., page 165), ‘“‘ the Bishop had happened to choose for his 
temporary favourite a very worthy man, Mr. Bristol, a clergy- 
man resident at Belfast and beneficed in his diocese. To this 
gentleman, having intimated a pressing desire that a parsonage 
house should be built on his glebe, he was truly answered that, 
with every sincere wish to execute his lordship’s commands, 
money alone was wanting. ‘That difficulty,’ replied he, ‘I can 
easily remove. I will lend you the money upon your bond, 
which shall never trouble you, but will be my security against 
your successor.’ Bristol with thanks consented, the bond was 
executed, and the money advanced. Sometime afterwards 
at his own table, in a numerous company, consisting principally 
of clergymen, the Bishop, probably heated by wine, entered 
into a discourse upon religion, and chose to sustain the most 
impious tenets in the most profane language. The appalled 
assistants trembled, and were silent; when Bristol, rightly 
deeming acquiescence criminal, manfully rebuked his lordship 
with a becoming indignation, and easily refuted his flimsy 
arguments. A day or two passed, when the good clergyman 
received an intimation from the Sheriff, who concurred with 
all that knew him in esteem and affection, that he should take 
care to keep out of the way, as a writ had been put into his 
hands by the Bishop for a very large sum due from him to his 
lordship. The poor parson, alarmed beyond measure, com- 
municated his distressful situation to his friends at Belfast who, 
with a generosity by no means singular among the inhabitants 
of that city, immediately raised the money, not less than a 
thousand pounds, and the debt was instantly discharged. 
Bristol now wrote to the Bishop a letter dictated by his just 
indignation at the treatment he had received, which he con- 
cluded by threatening to give to the public the whole transac- 
tion at large, the consequence of which was a most abject answer 
from his lordship, who in the most servile manner begged 
forgiveness, and as a pledge thereof besought him to take 
back the money. The poor man, in order to repay his 
generous friends, unwillingly consented and the affair was 
hushed.” 

Charlemont’s “ Mr. Bristol’ of Belfast is evidently intended 
for the Rev. Mr. Bristow of Belfast, to a dispute with whom 


386 The Earl Bishop 


about money-matters a letter* (now at Downhill) from the Bishop 
relates. Incidentally it gives a side-light on the transaction 
which had taken place about Mr. Bristow’s glebe house in 
1785 to which Charlemont’s story refers. Whatever may have 
been the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, we may surely 
hesitate to assign the good clergyman’s righteous denunciation 
of the Bishop’s bad language as the cause of his lordship’s 
subsequent instigation of proceedings against him. It 1s 
likely that the Bishop thought no more of his own ebullition 
at his dinner table, or of his worthy guest’s “ manful rebuke.” 
Such manfulness, indeed, was a quality which he respected 
far more than subservience. 

A second story which Charlemont relates on the authority 
of Mr. O’Neill must here be transcribed without comment ; 
for the Bishop’s version—if he had one—is not known : 


“Some years ago, Mr. O’Neill, whose goodness of heart 
often operated against his excellent understanding in rendering 
him too easily led by designing men, brought a Bill into Parhia- 
ment highly unjust and of the most unpopular nature, enabling 


* This letter is addressed by the Bishop to his kinsman and factotum, Harry Hervey 
Bruce, some six years after the first dispute with Bristow about his glebe-house in 1785, 
to which Charlemont’s story evidently refers : 

““ To the Reverend Mr. Bruce, Blackheath, Coleraine, Ireland. 

. “Annan, 6th October, 1791. 

“ tho’ I wrote to you so lately my dear Harry yet a very extraordinary letter from 
Mr. Bristow of Belfast obliges me to trouble you again 

“in 1785, when he had convine’d me by pledging his word of Honor that the certificate 
for his Glebe house had not been mortgaged, I wrote him an acknowledgement of my 
Ikrror, as he desired & then spontaneously, unsollicited & of my own accord promised 
to let him have the £600 again whenever his certificate should be completed in order to put 
him upon a footing with the other clergy to whom I had lent money 

“some difficulties & great delay arose about the Certificate & being afraid of being 
involved with his Successor I wrote him that I would pay him the Interest of the {600 
instead of the Principal Sum, until he or his heirs received that sum from his successor 

“after many invectives against this change, he at last declar’d in his letter that ‘ he 
was quite indifferent whether he received the Principal or the Interest’ & he continued 
regularly to draw for the Interest & to receive it until his successor had paid him the 
whole sum. 

“you will observe it is now about six years since I made him that promise, & about 
five since he began to receive the interest, ‘during all which time he never made the most 
distant Claim or the slightest hint of any other expectation whatever, 

“ but on the 29th of September last he writes me a furious letter & encloses in it, two 
accounts of a balance DUE to him—one of £441 19s. which he says ‘ ought to be repaid 
by Ld. B. for the reason assigned in a letter to his Lordship, but which he almost seems 
to give up, as on the other side is stated an account which he presumes cannot be refused, 
& that amounts only to £161 4s. 3d. 

““E send you dear Harry a transcript of both for your guidance; for as he has desir’d 
that his Demands may be referr’d to Arbitrators, (in which he is right, for if even he gets 
nothing, he loses nothing) I have appointed you & Mr. Galbraith to be my Arbitrators, 
& I think Bonds should be signed by him & Me to abide by the decision, or the same work 
may recommence six years hence. 

“the Original demand in Mr. B.’s own hand together with his Jetter I have transmitted 
to Mr. Galbraith & I think you will be amazed at the Style of Both—here follow the two 
accounts.”’ 

Then follows a statement of the accounts, which need not be here detailed, and of the 
Bishop’s comments upon them. 











The Earl Bishop 387 


vestries consisting of Protestants alone to raise taxes for the 
repair of churches upon the dissenting inhabitants of the parish. 
This measure had been strongly recommended to him by the 
Bishop of Derry, who had even written to him several times in 
a high strain of ecclesiastical zeal. The bill was thrown out, 
but the odium raised against its mover was so great and universal 
as to injure him essentially both in his interest and in his peace 
of mind. Happening one day to meet the Bishop in a large 
company, he was not a little surprised to find himself severely 
rated by his lordship, not only for the imprudence, but for the 
unconstitutional injustice of the measure he had brought 
forward. O’Neill was too much astonished to reply, and even 
began to think his memory deceived him, until on his return 
home, he found the individual letters which the Bishop had 
written, of which, with far too much levity, he contented 
himself with sending his lordship copies.” 


CHAPTER WAL 


1785 


ESUMING our chronological records of the Bishop, whom 
we left in the summer of 1785 after a severe illness, 
quitting Downhill for a long time, we find him arrived at Bath 
to drink the waters. Thither his Irish neighbours the Barnards 
accompanied him. One of the Miss Barnards was to become 
connected with the Bishop by her marriage, and closely as- 
sociated with his later life. 
At Bath, too, was the Bishop’s sister, Lady Mary Fitzgerald. 
The Bishop writes to Lady Erne, who was still the guest of 
Lady Rivers at the Villa Pitt, near Lyons: 


‘“ Bath, 
“July 25th, 1785. 

‘““ After various relapses, my dear Mary, & those of a very 
perilous kind I am at length crawling to the Pump. Your 
letter arriv’d here yesterday on the same day and almost at 
the same hour with myself, & I am glad you have explain’d 
yr self so explicitly & candidly on the subject of mine. I deem 
rest essential to your recovery and wd by no means have you 
disturb it to meet me. If I can, I will call upon you (at Lyons) 
& help to make yr journey more comfortable into Italy: if 
not, I desire you will draw upon Mr. Fletcher for the expenses 
of it, & not diminish the charges because I bear them, for you 
wd then defeat my purpose which is to lessen yr cares & not to 
- multiply them—nothing can be more uncertain than my motions, 
except my health which has received such a shock I know not 
what can settle it—Don’t you suspect yr fever to bea serious one ? 
and in that case would not Seltzerv-water be good for you ?— 
yr journeys & yr medicines must be at my cost that you may 
not spare them: Give half a dozen kisses to Lal Lal, & bid her 
sing her Mama to sleep after dinner that she may grow fat— 
why don’t you live upon Fruit & cream in the country where 

388 


The Earl Bishop 389 


you are? Throw physick to the dogs—say you, canst thou not 
minister to a mind diseas’d &c. &c. >—indeed I could, but the 
Patient must be at hand. I believe you may write to me by 
return of this Post—adieu—my pains are returning. Lady 
Mary and I din’d téte-a-téte today, yet the Barnards, the dear 
Barnards, are in the same lodgings—very ill, but recovering— 
direct your’s to me at St. James’s Square—adieu, my affectionate 
comps. to dear Lord Rivers. Sister Mary sends hers to Both.” 


fy Leek ay 
“ August 16th, 1785. 


“ Writing is not the thing at Bath, & I have besides so many 
pleasanter things to do by means of the dear Friendly Family 
with whom I entirely live, nine hours of the twenty-four only 
excepted, that excepting yourself my dear Mary there is scarce 
a correspondent either of Pleasure or business for whom I take 
up my pen: but [ feel too well, am too certain that such a 
well-ness will inevitably transpire thro’ my Pen, & give you too 
much pleasure my dear child in the perception, not to com- 
municate it: yet attribute not this tardy amendrtient to Bath 
alone—Aether and Vitriol contribute, Hemlock & Laudanum 
assist, Corelli, Bach & Abel come in as powerful Allies, & above 
all the harmony of the Invaluable Family & the Dear little 
Matron in it, who is everything she should be except healthy, 
bring up the Rear of this Auxiliary Army & Insure Victory. 
Before the Waters took this last turn in my favor I deter- 
mined not to clog their Restoration with my Martyrdom, but 
ten days have made so essential an amendment in my feelings 
that I begin to flatter myself again that we shall land at Calais 
together—if it be practicable I wish to pick up such a little 
Drab as you at Lyons, before the cold shall make the transit 
of the Alps hasardous to yr poor shatter’d frame. But as yet 
it is impossible to fix anything like a period to our Abode here. 
Strength here is absolutely necessary to enable us to acquire 
strength abroad, or the portion we can obtain is as yet so very 
uncertain that I must still leave you to guess when you will see 
me. October & part of November are the most favourable 
months in the year to cross Mount Cenis, and, what is equally 
material to Us, to traverse Lombardy afterwards—I bring with 
me a Pillion & a side saddle for your alternate use with Miss 
Barnard & my dear little friend who is as pale as a ghost, as 
lively as a Spirit, & as amiable as Blood without Flesh can be. 
If we find our Party too numerous we can at any rate divide till 
we center again in some provincial town. In the meantime we 


* 


390 The Earl Bishop 


are an Itinerant Band of Musick, a very sensible & sweet-temper'd 
Physician attends me & there are some tolerable Draftsmen 
among us—but the Essence of Our Party is Harmony, for there 
is not a Discord among us, tho’ all the instruments are equally 
sweet ton’d, & it is the general opinion that you are worthy to 
mingle in so unison a Chorus. Adieu—when you are tir’d of 
kissing Caroline for her own sake give her one for mine—you 
have time yet to send me Commissions, the Time & my Purse 
will both bear it.” 


Meanwhile the Bishop was kept constantly informed of 
all that was going on at home. On his departure from Ireland, 
Downhill was thoroughly overhauled & renovated ona large scale. 

In a letter to the Bishop dated August 23, 1785,* one of 
his clerical agents informs his lordship that he has “ paid a 
visit at the Downhills last week & took a very particular View 
of all that was going onthere. Haffeman has finished the West 
side of the offices, & I think well—he intended to begin with the 
North side yesterday—The walls of the great Gallery were 
being raised while it was necessary to rebuild a portion of the 
fabric owing to certain defects of its construction.”’ 

A side-light on the Bishop at Bath reveals him in his character 
as a patron of talent and, at the same time, in one equally con- 
genial to him as a protector of the aggrieved—more especially 
when such were in revolt. Doctor Lort, who well seasoned his 
letter with gossip, writing to Bishop Percy,f reports that the 
Bishop of Derry is at Bath and has given fifty pounds to the 
Bristol poetical milkwomant (Mrs. Yearsley) since she has 
quarrelled with some of her first patrons and protectors, and 
has threatened to write the Life and Adventures of Hannah 
More, who first drew her from obscurity. 

From Bath the Bishop went to Bristol Wells to drink the 
waters. He dated the following remarkable letter there Sep- 
tember 24, 1785. It gives insight into the wide principle he 
pursued with regard to the presentation to livings in his gift : 


* Letter at Downhill (in the possession of Sir Hervey Bruce, Bart.), signed Robert 
McGhee. 


t ‘“‘ Nichol’s Literary Anecdotes,’’ Vol. VIII., page 474. Dr. Lort’s letter is dated 
October 31, 1785. His news was therefore belated, for the Bishop had by that time gone 
abroad. 

t+ Anne Yearsley, ‘‘ well known in the poetical world as the Milkwoman of Bristol, 
was possessed of an extraordinary degree of genius, and, for a person in her situation, most 
valuable information.”’ (Ibsd.) She had formerly published a remarkable poem in 
praise of Hannah More. The Bishop, it appears, was not alone in his support of Mrs. 
Yearsley versus Mrs. More at this time. The literary Mrs. Fletcher, Elizabeth Dawson 
(born 1770, died 1850), relates in her autobiography that when about seventeen ‘“‘ I read 
somewhere of a dispute between Mrs. Hannah More and Ann Yearsley the Bristol milk- 


woman. The poor woman’s narrative struck me as having a strong claim on the reader’s 
sympathy.” 


The Ear! Bishop 391 


OER 

“It will give me great pleasure to gratify you in your 
request, but your nephew must procure a curacy in my Diocese 
previous to his obtaining a benefice. This rule has been observed 
by my nearest friends, & most importunate suitors. Your 
nephew will thus be admitted ad eundem as the Universities 
express it. But no merit however transcendent will yet a while 

induce me to transport a foreign plant into my Diocese. 

“Tam Sir with real regard 
“Yours, 
““ BRISTOL. 


‘To Andrew Todd, Esq.., 
“Shanes Castle, Antrim.” 


On his way to London the Bishop passed through Oxford, 
where (wrote Sackville Hamilton to the Duke of Rutland) 
“a gentleman of strict veracity mentioned being caught by 
a sudden exclamation from one country-man to another, as 
he walked through the street : ‘Why sure, Thomas, that there 
man cannot be a parson in them there clothes.’ The gentleman 
turned his head and saw no other but the Bishop of Derry in a 
light lac coat and his Volunteer hat fiercely cocked, laced, 
and with a cockade. He is going to the Continent.’’* 

News of the Bishop’s movements was reported from Dover 
to the Dublin Evening Post, which announced that “ the Right 
Honble. and Right Revd. the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry, 
landed at Calais on the 4th Ult. (October, 1785) on his way to 
Veet hg De 

It appears that the Bishop had, in fact, landed the day 
before, accompanied by his son Frederick, and by others—desig- 
nated by the Bishop as “clods.’’ He writes to Lady Erne, 
whom he was about to join at Lyons en route for Rome: 


‘* Calais, 
“October 3rd, 1785. 


“Here I am at last, my dear Mary, and here is Caroline’s 
- Doll—that is your Doll’s Doll; and Lady Rivers’s turnip 
seed—if my horses arrive from England to-morrow we shall 
proceed ‘ avec des bottes de Sept Lieues’ ou de quatre jambes 
qui les vaillent bien—you must allow me one day with Madame 
de Blondel, which tho’ a Sabbath will not be a day of rest—Yet 
no holding up of little fingers Madame Mary—nous ne sommes 


* Hist. Comm. of MSS., ‘“‘ Rutland Papers,’’ page 250. 


392 The Earl Bishop 


pas sur ce pied-la—ours is all Platonism, Sentiment & Poli- 
ticks*—fuel more suitable for 55 & a constitution lacerated by 
unintelligible disorders, & unintelligent physicians. Already 
however I seem to feel the dry air of the continent ; my sleeps 
are sounder & my nights quieter. Till within a few days I 
have been a Spectre. Ihave now recover’d a little flesh, perhaps 
as much as you possess, but my spirit has never quitted me— 
& seldom my spirits—but I want society, & the clods I bring 
with me are none, except Frederick, & I have lost the most 
delicious of all; the dear Barnards are not well enough to 
accompany me. She indeed is much recover’d, but the two 
daughters are woefully ill & as yet incapable of proceeding—The 
Physicians had totally mistaken Miss Barnard’s malady & its 
remedy, & sent her to Bath, where she inflam’d her blood, 
instead of Tunbridge, where she would only have brac’d her 
nerves—thither she is now gone & at this time of year when she 
ought to be landed on the Continent. Mary her sister seems to 
be following in her steps, & is rapidly declining—the father 
bears it all with Philosophic serenity—fattens & grows sleek 
amidst all their Palings & Ghastliness, & sees with equal eye, 
as Friend of All a daughter languish & a Sparrow fall—His 
general Philanthropy and his individual indifference are objects 
of speculation but not of practice—-His wife is a Maitresse 
Femme full of sense and sentiment, too much for her lacerated 
frame, without a spark of vanity, but replete with the noblest 
Pride with the most sublimated spirits, check’d & controlled 
by the best principle, Prudence; lik’d by everybody & lov’d 
by nobody ; civil to everyone & loving None ; understood by 
No one & understanding every one; full of literature, & if 
possible still fuller of modesty ; living continually in a circle 
that approach her person & are antipodes to her intellect, her 
feelings, and her worth. I was persuaded she wd have accom- 
panied me into Italy, but the desperate malady of her daughter 
has broke the charm & dissipated the vision, & you have lost 
an invaluable companion, & so adieu dearest Mary. You may 
yet write at Sr — Lambert’s at Paris, for I have not strength 


enough to travel fast. Adieu Adieu—my blessing & Ten kisses 
to Caroline.” 


The Bishop journeyed via Paris to Lyons, where‘he “‘ picked 
up’’ Lady Erne. Thence the party proceeded on their way to 
Rome through Nice and the Riviera, thus avoiding the moun- 
tainous passes. The Bishop went on horseback, following the 


* Madame de Blondel, Turgot’s friend. Her salon in Paris was much frequented. 


The Earl Bishop 398 


~ 


coast from Nice, accompanied by Frederick, while Lady Erne 
went by a more direct route and arrived at Rome some days 
before her father. 

By the middle of January the Bishop was approaching 
Rome. ‘Ld. Bristol is expected here daily,” writes a corre- 
spondent of the Rev. George Ashby* from the Hotel Minerva, 
Rome, January 18, 1786. ‘‘ His daughter is here now, as also 
the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Charlotte Bertie, Ld. Northing- 
ton, Ld. Bernard &c., &c. Ld. Pembroke’s bedroom is over 
mine. The Duke of Gloucester has ordered lodgings to be 
taken, and is supposed to be on the road, so that he and the 
Pretender will often meet at Cardinal Bernis’ where the latter 
is a constant visitor, & where I sat very near him for some 
time.” 

Another correspondent of Mr. Ashby gives news of the 
Bishop’s arrival in Rome. He quotes as his authority the 
notorious Fisher,f the Roman banker, who, in his youth, in- 
famously murdered his employer in London, and having fled 
to Italy, made a large fortune and became an important figure 
in Roman society. Ashby’s correspondent? writes that he 
has had “a letter from Mr. Fisher, dated Feb. 11th,” of which 
the following is an extract : 

“The Vescovo Inglese (the name Ld. Bristol is most known 
by in Italy) arrived here two or three days ago. He travelled 
with his son on horse-back all the way by the coast from Nice. 
I met him at the Cardinal de Bernis’ last night. He asked me 
if I was known to his friend Mr. Ashby. Iam to dine with him 
tomorrow ; we shall call upon Bacchetti next week to consult 
him on Mr. Ashby’s commission. The father (Ld. Bristol) 
is not only very learned but a very polite & obliging man,” 

A letter from the Bishop to his friend Ashby shows that 


* Letter among the ‘‘ Hardwick House Papers,”’ signed Philippo Bacchetti, Library 
Keeper, addressed to Rev. George Ashby, President of St. John’s, Cambridge. 


¢ “he may relate the history of Fisher,’’ says Fielding (“‘ Tom Jones,’’ Book VIII., 
Chapter I.), ‘‘ who having long owed his bread to the generosity of Mr. Derby, and having, 
one morning, received a considerable bounty from his hands, yet in order to possess him- 
self of what remained in his friend’s scrutoire, concealed himself in a public office of the 
Temple, through which there was a passage into Mr. Derby’s chambers. Here he over- 
heard Mr. Derby for many hours solacing himself at an entertainment which he that 
evening gave his friends, and to which Fisher had been invited. During all this time no 
tender, no grateful, reflections arose to restrain his purpose ; but when the poor gentleman 
had let his company out through the office, Fisher came suddenly from his lurking-place, 
and walking softly behind his friend into his chamber, discharged a pistol-ball at his head. 
This may be believed when the bones of Fisher are as rotten as his heart. Nay, perhaps, 
it will be credited that the villain went two days afterwards with some young ladies to 
the play of Hamlet and with an unaltered countenance heard one of the ladies, who little 
suspected how near she was to the person, cry out Good God! if the man that murdered 
Mr. Derby was now present ! manifesting in this way a more seared and callous conscience 
than even Nero himself... .”’ 


{ J. Chevallier to Rev. G. Ashby, March 5, 1786: ‘‘ Hardwick House’’ MSS. 


394 , The Earl Bishop 


immediately on his arrival in Rome he interested himself 
about the literary ‘“‘Commission’”’ alluded to by Fisher. It 
will be remembered that Ashby, President of St. John’s, Cam- 
bridge, had been one of the erudite circle of friends at the weekly 
dinners during the Bishop’s residence at Ickworith. 

The Bishop wrote : 


“Rome, 
“9 Feb) 1786. 

ho Lk. 

‘““T yesterday received yr letter among others upon my 
arrival at Rome, & lost no time in applying to Cardinal Bernis’s 
Secretary who has been himself 10 years employ’d in collating 
& transcribing MSS. He assures me that since the death of our 
common friend & liberal encourager of science, the Prelate 
Assemani, such indulgences are become almost unfeasible. I 
will however apply to Cardinal Buoncompagno, who is my 
particular friend, and if without indiscretion I can be indulged, 
you shall have notice. About 8 years ago* I myself collated 
those very passages in the Monte Cassino Library, that of 
Friuli, Vercelli, & Trent & found such variations as convinc’d 
me all Parties wish’d to have a finger in the pye. 

“T wish you had nam’d our friend Sir John Cullum whose 
health I am told is desperate, & Dr. Symonds whose welfare 
must be precious to every man of Literature. Pray give my 
best compliments to M. Mure & let Arthur Young know that the 
Pontine Marshes, being almost drain’d, are traversed by an 
Imperial Road 25 miles long & 50 feet wide. The tillage yields 
145 for one of Turkey Corn. Adieu! BRriIsTor.”’ 


That the Bishop was as munificent a patron of painting as 
he had been on former visits to Rome, appears by a letter from 
Dr. Lort to Mr. Ashby at this time. 

“Enclosed,” he writes, “is a paragraph relative to your 
friend Lord Bristol whose arrival at Rome was very acceptable 
to all the various artists.’’ t 

Letters from Lady Rivers addressed to Lady Erne at Rome 
show that the Bishop spent some months there and was on the 
happiest terms with his daughter. ‘‘ I quite love his Lordship,” 
writes Lady Rivers, “‘ for his attentions and kindness to you, 
and beg you will say all sorts of kind things for me to him ; and 


* When he was in Italy, 1778-1779. 
+ Sir John Cullum, of Hardwick, had, in fact, lately died. 
} “ Hardwick House’’ MSS.: Dr. Lort’s letter dated, ‘‘Saville Row, April, 1786.”’ 


The Earl Bishop 395 


tell your brother Frederick I wish him all sorts of pleasures 
& the comfort in you that I think he cannot fail of finding.” 
Again (March 3, 1786), she sends “‘ ten thousand loves to Ld. 
Bristol. . . . Tell me about John (Lord Hervey) in your next, 
& Elizabeth (Foster) & when you are to see them.’’* 

The Bishop went from Rome to Naples, where he fell dan- 
gerously ill. With reference to this illness of the Bishop, some 
gossip is reported in the “ Life of Grattan,” by his son. While 
the insinuations drawn by the narrator from the facts of his 
story are the less convincing by reason of his manner of relating 
it, a curious scene is here presented ; and the association with 
it of Lord Northington, the convivial ex-Viceroy of Ireland, 
who two years before had sought to impeach the Bishop, adds 
a feature of some interest : 

‘When the Bishop was lying ill at Naples,” says the younger 
Grattan, “Lord Northington was there. Colonel Fitzgerald 
(Mrs. Grattan’s brother) was calling at the Hotel where the Bishop 
was, when a scene, very singular, and not very moral took place. 
The Bishop was just receiving the sacrament, when a young 
and interesting female pressed forward to enter his apartment. 
She was informed it was impossible to see him, as the rites of 
the Church were just administering. The Italian not under- 
standing the ceremony and thinking that it was some medicine, 
exclaimed ‘ quando avra passato, io entrero.’ . . . Lord North- 
ington and Colonel Fitzgerald were somewhat surprised ; 
when the former, addressing the Colonel, said: ‘ There is the 
Bishop! when I was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, I had the 
warrant in my pocket to arrest him for his seditious conduct 
and commit him to prison.’ ”’ 

Reports of the Bishop’s grave condition reached Ireland 
where a “‘rot’’ among the Bishops was as eagerly desired in 
high places as ever was a “rot among the Rectors’’ by the 
hungriest curate. It was usual for great peers to solicit from 
the Lord Lieutenant the highest Church patronage for such 
younger son or brother, as the case might be, who was eligible 
for promotion, and the Bishopric of Derry was so large a prize 
that it was the especial goal of the most prominent personages 
in Ireland. The Earl of Tyrone, the head of the Beresford 
family, writes from Curraghmore, August 3, 1786, to the Duke 
of Rutland.t ‘“‘I have an account that the Bishop of Derry 
is in a wretched & emaciated state, & that we shall hear of his 


* Mrs. J. Talbot’s Papers: Lady Erne’s correspondence. 


+ Lord Northington died abroad soon after this incident in the summer of 1730. His 
health had long been impaired, as was well known, by his too great addiction to “‘ Bacchus’s 
blessings.”’ 


396 The Earl Bishop 


death in a very short while. Let me mention to you that the 
transference of my brother the Bishop of Ossory to the see of 
Derry is an object which on many accounts I have greatly at 
heart.” 

The Bishop, however, recovered, and kept the place-hunters 
waiting for many a year to come. 

The gossip of Sir Horace Mann next reports the movements 
of the Bishop. Writing from Florence to Horace Walpole in 
the summer of 1786, he says : 


‘We have another curious being hovering about Tuscany, 
but he has not yet been here—the Episcopal Earl of Bristol. 
He moves from place to place to avoid his eldest son whom 
he leaves in absolute distress, at a time when he himself squanders 
vast sums in what he calls the Beaux Arts.” . . . Doran, the 
Biographer of Mann, adds:* ‘“‘ Lord Hervey who with his 
lady and a numerous family (he had in fact only one child—a 
daughter) had resided at Naples for sometime, made frequent 
trips to Rome to implore his father’s assistance. He was 
often refused admittance, and when he did obtain it always 
met with a denial. The young Lord, when his father escaped 
from Rome unknown to any of his family, went back to Naples 
to quit his creditors.’ Mann was now very old and com- 
plained of languor, “ but,’’ says Doran, “‘ not so much affected 
by languor as not to exert himself to serve an Earl Bishop.” 
When the news reached Florence that Fighting Fitzgerald, 
who fought in six-and-twenty duels, was hanged for a brutal 
murder at last, Mannt prevented the publication of it in the 
Italian gazettes. 

How the Bishop received the news of the shocking end of 
his nephew with whom he had been so intimately associated 


* “© Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence,’’ by J. Doran, Vol. IT. 


+ George Robert Fitzgerald was executed at Castlebar on June 12, 1786. A feud 
with a certain McDonnell whom Fitzgerald’s men ambushed and wounded caused a reward 
of £3,000 to be offered for Fitzgerald’s apprehension. In spite of this he again waylaid 
McDonnell, who was endeavouring to effect his arrest, and in the scuffle one of his anta- 
gonists was killed. A rescue party coming up, he was captured, attacked by a mob, and 
left for dead, but survived to stand his trial for murder. See Appendix to “ A Bit of 
18th Century Romance ’’ (in which some curious letters by his mother, Lady Mary Fitz- 
gerald, to Lord Sandwich are published), by H. C. Marillier in the ‘‘ Sette of Odd Volumes,” 
No. XXXIX., privately printed. 

Timothy Brecknock (to whom I have alluded as treacherously offering his services 
to Pitt’s Government as a spy against the Volunteer reformers, while he was residing with 
Fitzgerald as his guest in Dublin) was hanged with Fitzgerald for his complicity in the 
murder of McDonnell. The Duke of Rutland, in a letter to Lord Sydney, mentions the 
execution of Fitzgerald and contrasts the fortitude of Brecknock with the ‘‘ unmanly 
terror ’’ displayed by Fitzgerald. But he omits the shocking circumstances which un- 
manned him. Fitzgerald went to his death with courage, but the rope with which he was 
hanged gave way and he fell to the ground. His nerves were then completely unstrung, 
he lost courage, and prayed for delay. But a fresh rope being eventually brought, he 
was hanged. See ‘“‘ The Life and Times of George Robert Fitzgerald.” 


» | 








John Augustus, Lord Hervey, son of fourth Earl of Bristol. 
Dem | AlUatye2Oyel 7 570 CLODEr a 1 770, eliza bethmdauchter Of 
r 


Colin Drummond; d. January 10, 1796. 
By Thomas Gainsborough. Portrait at Ickworth. 


[To face page 396. 





The Earl Bishop 397 


two years earlier, there is no record. We lose sight of him on 
his journey homeward from Florence, and do not trace him 
until after his arrival at Downhill some months later. With 
regard to Lord Hervey, it may be said here that on returning 
to Naples he found an object more agreeable to himself than that 
of “ quitting his Creditors.” He was in love. Probably his 
wife was not with him. 

The object of his passion was a very young lady belonging 
to one of the most influential families in Naples, the wife of 
Prince Roccafionta. The intrigue had gone so far by the 
summer of 1787 that the lady’s family besought the King and 
Queen of Naples to put a stop to it. A curious feature of the 
affair was that King Ferdinand, whose own reputation for 
gallantry was notorious, should have felt constrained to intervene : 
whilst the two intermediaries he employed were his Prime 
Minister, General Acton,* who was reputed to be the lover of 
the Queen, and Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador, 
at that time openly living with Emma Lyon before marriage 
had consecrated the union. 

Lord Hervey was appointed in the following month (August, 
1787) English Envoy to the Tuscan Court at Florence in suc. 
cession to Sir Horace Mann who had died in the previous 
November. By this access of fortune he was placed in a posi- 
tion of pecuniary independence of his father, to whose favour 
he was now restored, and at the same time he was sufficiently 
removed from the scene of his recent intrigue. 


_* This eminent statesman, John Francis Edward Acton, born of an old Shropshire 
family, for many years governed, with the Queen, the kingdom of Naples and the Two 
Sicilies. Eventually becoming head of his family, he succeeded as sixth baronet of Alden- 
ham ; and was grandfather of the late Lord Acton, the distinguished historian. 


Weve ul. 


GHAPTER  XUL 
1787—88—89-90 


|) Sire the Bishop’s absence abroad in 1786 a matter 

of great interest to him occurred in his domestic sur- 
roundings in Ireland. This was the marriage of his young 
kinsman Henry Hervey Bruce to Miss Letitia Barnard. 

The elder of the two brothers of Mrs. Mussenden, whose 
premature death the Bishop had lately mourned, Harry Bruce 
was a young man of excellent character. He graduated in 
the University of Dublin in 1785, and was destined for Ordina- 
tion. The lady of his choice was highly approved by the Bishop, 
she being one of “‘ the dear Barnards’”’ frequently mentioned. 
Her parents were the Revd. Dr. Henry Barnard (son of the 
former Bishop of Derry) and Mrs. Barnard (a daughter of 
Stratford Canning of ...) whom the Bishop designated a 
wiemale Pitt: 

The course of their true love had not run smoothly until 
the Bishop intervened and removed the obstacle to it of 
poverty. Lord Charlemont, whose ‘“ candour ”’ compelled him, 
as he says, to record some facts in the Bishop’s favour, relates 
the following episode concerning the young lovers and the 
Bishop’s kindness to them : 

“Mr. Bruce,” says Charlemont, ‘“‘ was desperately in love 
with an amiable young woman who ardently returned his 
affection. Mutually wishing to be indissolubly united, the 
lover asked his mistress in marriage, but met with a peremptory 
refusal from her father, on account of his poverty, which was 
indeed such as to render matrimony to the last degree im- 
prudent. Sensibility, without my aid, will readily conceive 
the situation to which this wretched couple was reduced. The 
parental opposition was just ; even the lover’s sentiment was 
forced to concur with the father’s reason. The difficulties 
were insuperable, and two innocent bosoms were resigned to 
the horrid tyranny of despair ; when at once the obstacle was 


398 


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‘pieuieg Aiusp Id “AoY CHAM EPID Mage IE EE § 
jo reyysnep ‘sonig Ape’yT “et}1}0'] ‘gonig uojsy-AsAloy ATUaP{ IIS “Aa 








The Earl Bishop 399 


generously removed by the Bishop who not only promised to 
provide for Bruce in the Church, but nobly settled upon him 
out of his own pocket a yearly income of no less than 400 
pounds.” | 

The marriage took place on November 10, 1786. It 
proved a happy union from youth to age. Henceforth Harry 
Hervey Bruce devoted himself to his patron’s interests with 
great attention and ability, and during the latter’s long absence 
abroad kept him constantly informed on all local matters, 
diocesan, civil and social ; while Bruce and his wife—‘‘ dearest 
Letitia,” as the Bishop styled her—grew more and more closely 
in touch with the Bishop, and bound up with his dearest projects. 

In February, 1787, and perhaps some months earlier, the 
Bishop was back at Downhill. Lady Erne had remained 
abroad and returned to Rome for the winter. The Bishop 
wrote to her there. 

“ Downhill, 
“March 8th, 1787. 

“My DEAREST Mary, 

~ It is an age since I have heard from you, wch 
makes me wish that you wd make it a rule to write every week 
or fortnight or month as best suits yr spirits : in this periodical 
correspondence you may write a few lines every day & I shall 
get a delicious long letter without fatigue to you at the end of 
the term—my business both within & without doors is so 
multiplied that I have scarce leisure or inclination for writing 
unless to a very few intimates—Elizabeth has wrote to me for 
£50 to pay two pictures of Mr. Day’s. How can two miniatures 
come to £50: Louisa has sold the beautiful gown I gave her, 
because the shape was not fashionable, and I have redeem’d 
it & paid her the price—I think you wd not have sold my 
present at any era of yr life for Ten times its value—‘ mais je 
suis fait 4 Tout.’ I strike against my heart & it hurts my hand, 
all but a corner of it which will not petrify—in the meantime 
I am stoick enough to find adopted children, brothers, every- 
thing, & can smile with ineffable contempt at the injuries & 
revilements I incur: in this country I am more popular & 
more courted than ever: yet I do nothing but build houses, 
plant forests, decorate villas, &c. & live with my acquaintance 
as my inclination induces & my property prescribes. 

“March 30th.—We have renew’d our monthly concerts, & 
Dr. Barnard finds the air of Downhill so Confacente that he 
has desir’d to pass some weeks here, & Mrs. Barnard is such a 
favorite & such a Pitt that nothing can be pleasanter than 
the distribution of our time. In the meanwhile, I have begun 


VOL. II. 5* 


400 The Earl Bishop 


a new Villa upon that leasehold estate of Ld. Massareene wch 
fell into me on the first day of last month—(Ballyscullion) the 
rents amount to {593 a year—the situation is beautiful & 
salubrious beyond all description, yet I must say something 
of it. Imagine to yourself then my dear Mary a globular 
hillock of gravel carpetted with dry green grass whose declivity 
reaches at the end of half a mile to the Banks of the River 
Bann or rather of Lough Beg, the small lake; this Lough Beg 
terminates at both ends in the River Bann—southward wch 
you may be sure is the Front of my house; the River again, 
after being decorated by Mr. O’Neill’s new Bridge at Toome, 
ends in Lough Neagh, & this is finally bounded by an immense 
ridge of the Conical Mountains of Mourne—such is my Prospect 
to the South. On the East, wch is the aspect of my Eating 
Room, the River Bann & the hills of the county of Antrim, 
together with a few hundred acres of my own estate, & a bridge 
which I am on the point of building will serve to amuse our eyes 
when we are not employing our knives and forks: but, on.the 
West, that Phenomenon in the County of Derry, a woodland 
Country with an elegant Village and the Mansion of Mr. Dawson 
together with a serpentine River of Two miles length will 
decorate the view from my drawing room: the House itself 
is perfectly circular in imitation of one which I saw upon an 
Island in the Westmoreland Lakes—it consists of an Oval 
Lobby & drawing-room of 36 by 24 & 18 feet, a Library to 
the South of 63 by 22, & a dining-Room of the same size with the. 
drawing-room, a butler’s hall, or Pantry like that at Derry & a 
breakfast-room or office Room of the same dimensions. The 
staircase is in the Center of the house & oval, & like a double 
screw includes the Back stairs, like Ld. Besborough’s at Roe- 
hampton and that of Marshall Saxe at Chambord in the Poitou. 
Apropos to France, would you think I have never heard from 
Madame Blondel since [ left Paris ? her health had very much 
affected her temper, her sentiments & her affections. 

‘“ April z2nd.—I am much alarm’d by not having heard from 
you in the course of this month. I renew my request that you 
would write periodically : tell me how & what you do? What 
occupies Caroline & does the atmosphere of Naples agree with 
her? I have not heard from your husband of an age, tho’ 
I have expected him every day: he is building a Cabin near 
Crum. Who do you care for in this country ? Lady Frances 
Stewart has been promising herself & me a visit these 3 months ; 
her husband will probably be here today without her.* Mr. 


* The Right Hon. Robert Stewart, afterwards first Marquis of Londonderry, married d 
Lady Frances Pratt, daughter of the first Earl Camden. ‘i 





Frideswide (sister of Sir H. Hervey-Aston Bruce). 
BeaijoO 3 1. 175i DaniclMiussendens datzo5: 


[To face page 400. 








The Earl Bishop 401 


Jackson, after superintending the Education of his son at 
Oxford, dangling as usual at the Castle. Kitty Black (?) alias 
_Maghee breeds fast & recovers her constitution by it: Miss 
Downes, as it was in the beginning &c., &c., &c. wishing she 
could join in the first sentence of the Doxology, ‘Glory be to 
the Father & Son. Adieu Adieu—pray serve Martin Torlonia* 
all you can—you will find it for yr own Interest as well as my 
satisfaction, & let him know how much [I interest myself in his 
| welfare.”’ 
The “‘ New Villa’ which the Bishop was intent on designing 
was eventually to become a great house called Ballyscullion. 
The faithful Shanahan writes, April 20, 1787: ‘It would 
have made me happy could I have been present when your 
Lordship was laying the foundation-stone, the Tenants & 
all the neighbourhood have a good right to rejoice, they all 
know very well it is the only means to enrich them ’’—true 
testimony to the fact that while the Bishop was gratifying 
his hobbies he was giving employment to the whole country- 
side—‘‘ filling their bellies,’ as his phrase was. Before tracing 
further the growth of Ballyscullion we observe, by Shanahan’s 
next letter, the singular fact that the “‘ Edifying’’ Bishop, 
although turning to a new object, was even now, or at least up 
to this very moment, also engaged in enlarging, transforming, 
and adorning Downhill, the hitherto favourite residence which 
had engrossed his attention during more than ten years. It may 
be observed that he was thus not as yet wholly off with the old 
love before he was on with the new. Shanahan writes from 
London whither he had been dispatched by the Bishop. (Origi- 
nal at Downhill.) 
‘May 23rd) 1787: 

‘Your Lordship says nothing of how many grates you want 
for Downhill, for the Gallery, library, Lady Elizabeth’s Alcove 
and Drawing room for Ditto: the Temple & Rooms to the end 
of the 2nd Gallery. I will do everything in my power to procure 
the best kinds of such articles your Lordship writes for, and upon 
the best terms, but must consult Mr. Wyatt or ae friend Mr. 
Stewart who will go with me while in London. nf 


The letter continues with reference to bridge-building in 
which the Bishop was at all times greatly interested. . 


“ | knew before I left Cork that Dr. Roch was engag’d with Mr. 
George Darly in building a part of the North Wall in Dublin. 


* Torlonia, the founder of the great banking house in Rome now represented by the 
Duke of Torlonia. 


402 The Earl Bishop 


I have got a much cleverer man & one of more experience & 


knowledge in bridge building ; he was principal man in building 
that of Lancaster, he can make all the Engines & other Ma- 


chinery necessary for such works. He has engaged with me for 
two years for {100 a year. As soon as my bridge is anyway 
forward, he & I will go & build your L.p’s bridge at Newferry. 
Mr. Harrison the Archt. of Lancaster bridge who your L.p. 
might remember to have seen in Rome has recommended this 
man to me (Abram Hargrave) as being the first in England 
in that line.—I have also brought, or sent over two labourers 
at 16/3 .a week)... /<:° 


The Bishop’s propensity for building may be traced to his 
love of novelty,which, increasing with advancing years, constantly 
demanded a fresh object for its gratification. An illustration 
of it is supplied by John Wesley at this time: On June 4, 
1787, Wesley, visiting the Bishop’s garden at Derry in his absence, 
and seeing the delightful summer-house 50 feet long which the 
Bishop some years earlier had erected on the point of a hill 
with a beautiful view, comments thus in his Journal : 

“ But his Lordship has utterly forsaken it, for it is no longer 
new.” 

The Bishop’s fancy was now diverted to the designing of 
his newest toy, Ballyscullion, which was originally called the 
“Castle of Bellaghy.’”’ The account he had written to Lady 
Erne did not exaggerate the beauty of its situation in one 
of the most romantic spots in Ireland. Rising on a gentle 
eminence overlooking Lough Beg, north of Lough Neagh, it 
was erected in a part of his diocese remote from Downhill, 
and in complete contrast to it. Protected from the northerly 
gales, its climate was mild. It was well wooded, and its grass 
lands were fertile ; and through them meandered the wide and 
deep waters of the Bann. With regard to Lough Beg the 
Statistical Survey of the County of Antrim (1812) remarks: 
“A curlous circumstance respecting this lake which the writer 
(Rev. John Dubourdier) heard from Lord Bristol, Bishop of 
Derry, many years ago, is too remarkable to be omitted: ‘In 
a monastery on the Continent, a manuscript existed which men- 
tions that in the sixth century a violent earthquake had thrown 
up the rock at Toome, which by obstructing the discharge of 
the rivers had formed this body of water, and that Lough Erne, 
in the county of Fermanagh, was produced at the same time.’ ”’ 

The same survey notes that on one of four islands of Lough 
Beg are the remains of a church on which the Bishop “ built 
a handsome spire which is a good relief to the prospects of 


Ee 





The Earl Bishop 4.03 


the country around it.’’ This was a feature to be seen from the 
new house at Ballyscullion. While the house was still in 
embryo the Bishop bethought him of stocking his waters with 
fish. He appears to have written to his friend Lord Moira to 
ask him for a supply. Lord Moira replies, July 16,1787: ‘I 
shall ever feel happy in obeying your Lordship’s commands. 
I sent immediately to Moira but I learn they were all stolen. 
However I have a good pond here (Montalto). Yr Lordship 
may have them when you choose. . . . A pond full of gudgeons 
_which breed amazingly and which I think little inferior to smelts.”’ 
(Sir Henry Bruce’s Papers at Downhill.) 

The building of Ballyscullion at first proceeded rapidly. 
While the ground plan was an oval of 74 feet by 84, of 
which the exterior wall was to be ornamented all round 
with twenty fluted Corinthian pilasters, the northern front 
presented a stately portico supported by six pillars. An attic 
story of 12 feet high rose above the whole and terminated 
in a sky-light. Two long corridors led from the two sides of the 
main building to picture galleries each 82 ft. by 25 ft. Even- 
tually the line of building extended to 350 ft. On the portico 
the Bishop caused an inscription to be made in Latin, of which 
the following is a translation : 


“ Here is a verdant plain : 
I will place a temple of marble 
Beside the waters where the vast 
Bann strays in sluggish windings 
And clothes its banks with tender reeds.”’ 


(This portico now adorns the church of St. George’s, Belfast, 
to which it was presented by the Bishop of Down when Bally- 
scullion was dismantled in 1813.—The Ivish Daily Telegraph 
for December 8, 1908.) 

A year after the foundation stone was laid, the Dublin 
Evening Herald reports (April 17, 1788): ‘“‘ The Earl of Bristol’s 
magnificent structure Ballyscullion in the county of Derry is 
in such forwardness that, if the season is favorable, there are 
hopes it may be covered before the winter.” 

As a matter of fact the building of Ballyscullion continued 
during many years and it was never wholly completed.* 


* Early in the nineteenth century the greater part of it was dismantled on account 

és the “ window-tax ”’ and became aruin ; and what remained of it was known to travellers 
‘ the Bishop’s Folly.”” In one of Charles Lever’s novels, ‘‘ The Bramleighs of Bishop’s 
Folly.” he is supposed to describe Ballyscullion in his opening pages. Of the Bishop— 
describing him under another name—he says: ‘‘ A Liberal in politics in an age when 
Liberalism lay close on the confines of disloyalty, specially hospitable at a period when 
hospitality verged on utter recklessness, he carried all his opinions to extremes. He had 
great taste which had been cultivated by foreign travel, and, having an ample fortune, 
he was able to indulge in many whims and caprices, by which some were led to doubt of 


4.04 The Earl Bishop 


The following letter from the Bishop to his Paris bankers 
seems to relate to plans in connection with the construction 
and adornment of his new palace. A courier from Rome would 
be likely to convey Italian designs ; while the royal chateau of 
Chambord was to supply a specimen of French taste : 


ae Bei Bios aint 
‘17th April, 1788. 

“Sirs, A tin case will be delivered to you for me by the 
Cardinal Bernis’s Courier. I request that you will either send 
it to me by the Post to Derry, or to Mr. Garvey at Rouen to be 
forwarded to his Dublin Correspondent. I prefer the post, if 
the charge be not above a guinea. I am really impatient to 
have it, as the Messenger has detained it a great while. I 
cannot forbear reminding you of the plan of the staircase at 
Chambord which you was so good as to promise me—Pray 
send it by the Post—BRISsTOL. 

‘A Messrs. 

‘““ Messrs. Peregeaux, 
“ Banquiers, 
“ Paris.”’ 

(The original in possession of the Rev. Sydenham Hervey, 

Bury St. Edmunds.) 


In the meanwhile plans for building the great wooden 
bridge over the Foyle at Derry, the project for which had been 
initiated by the Bishop some twenty years before, were again 
in agitation. Shanahan writes from Cork, January 26, 1788: 


‘““T would have done myself the honor of writing before this 
had I any News worth relating to your Lordship.—The paper 
your Lordship enclosed me is a copy of Mr. Miller’s manner 
of laying the foundation of the piers of the bridge of Derry. 
The novelty of his manner of laying the foundations made 


his sanity ; but others who judged him better ascribed them to the self-indulgence of a 
man out of harmony with his time and contemptuously indifferent to what the world 
might say of him.’’ Of “‘ Bishop’s Folly,’”’ which he describes as an Italian Palace, Lever 
says: ‘‘ The mansion stood on the side of a mountain which sloped gradually to the sea. 
The demesne well wooded, but with young timber, was beautifully varied in surface, 
one deep glen running, as it were, from the very base of the house, and showing glimpses 
through the trees of a bright and rapid river tumbling onward to the sea. But placed as 
was ‘ Bishop’s Folly’ in the midst of a wild mountain region, many miles away from 
anything that could be called a neighbourhood, many were led to wonder how the Bishop 
could have selected such a spot; but the same haughty defiance he gave the world in 
other things urged him here to show that he cared little for the judgments which might 
be passed on him; or even for the circumstances which would have influenced other 
men, ‘ When it is my pleasure to receive company, I shall have my house full, no matter 
where I live,’ was his haughty speech, and certainly the whole character of his life went 
to confirm his words.” 


The Earl Bishop 4.05 


me desirous to procure a copy of it, to show some of my friends 
here. The most interesting paragraph in his description is 
unintelligible to every person who has read it.—The founda- 
tions on which he erects his piers are composed of two cones of 
19 feet Diameter at the base & 25 feet high, the hint of using 
Cones he took from the Engineer of the Harbour of Cherbourg ; 
the late public prints say they were all destroyed by the late 
storms.—Mr. Miller’s piles are to be at least 55 feet long.— 
The difficulty of driving & managing a pile of this length in 
the deep water of Derry is what I should be sorry to encounter, 
in short we are of opinion here that what he advances is not 
practicable... .’ (Letter now at Downhill.) 


This plan was discarded, and the firm of Cox, of Boston, 
America, was eventually employed to construct the bridge: 








CHAPTER XLIT 
1788 (continued) 


fi nomad Bishop had again started on his travels by the 
autumn of this year. A letter to Lady Erne, then 
on a visit to her brother, Lord Hervey, the English Minister at 
Florence, shows the Bishop in the environs of Paris. It gives 
incidentally a scene of the ancien régime on the eve of the French 
Revolution such as never afterwards could be witnessed. 


‘“ Chantilly, 
“ Nov. 5th, 1788. 


“T return’d here from Paris, my dearest Mary, to see the 
Prince of Condé’s hunt* on the great festival of St. Hubert, 
but like most other things it did not answer. He & his 
family were dress’d like so many drummers & trumpeters in a 
Peach Color’d Cloth, coat, waistcoat & Breeches lac’d down 
the seams with silver—their hair as completely dress’d as 
if going to a Ball, & their Jack boots the only emblem of hunt- 
ing ; except indeed a large French horn, slung round the shoulder 
of each of them, which, the Prince & his grandson, the Duc 
d’Enghient a youth of 16 sounded from time fo times as 

‘“« Previous to the Chace at the easy hour of ten & 4 they all 
met under a superb tent, with the Princess Monaco ,the Queen, 
or rather Quean, of the feast—here they devour’da most comfort- 
able and regular dinner of Three courses and a Desert, followed 
‘dans toutes les formes’ wth coffee and liqueurs and thus ‘ with 
a Body cramm’d & vacant mind’ they hied them to the 
chace, wch to the poor stag lasted two hours. 

“The stag took to the water the hounds follow’d and then 
the Huntsmen with a coup de fusil gave the coup de Grace & 

* Louis Joseph Prince de Condé (1736-1815) served with distinction in the Seven 


Years’ War, emigrated in the following year (1789) and formed the Army of the Emigrés. 


+ This was the Duc d’Enghien, the last descendant of the Great Condé, whose tragic 
death in 1804 is well known. He was born at Chantilly in 1772, the son of Louis Henri 
Joseph Duc de Bourbon and the Princess Louise d’Orleans. 


406 


The Earl Bishop 407 


shot him dead—after this trophy they went in pursuit of a 
Second and a third—but what is such a skirmish compar’d to the 
Campaign of today—this morning at five he sallied forth with 
an Army oi Hounds to dislodge a wild Boar, & if he defeats 
him his Highness purposes, like another Frederick of Prussia 
to enter his post chaise & go in quest of another enemy at 
Compiégne—such are the Laurels, worn by the Descendant of 
the Great Condé, who by the By has in his Portrait at least the 
most cut-throat look ever yet described by Lavater. 

“All this have I wrote without one single reproach for your 
silence—I have not found one single letter from you among 
ninety that waited for me at Paris—-we have more delicious 
weather, & I should have remain’d much longer at Paris, but 
for some untoward circumstances—for I never lik’d it so well— 
& Politicks are going forward at a great rate—but I do not yet 
believe in the States General, the Resurrection of the dead, the 
forgiveness of Sins nor Patriotism Everlasting. 

‘“T shall stop at Lyons sometime if Lady Rivers, dear Lady 
Rivers, be there ; if not I shall proceed to Marseilles—et puis 
—vous scavez ma chére fille autant que moi—lI wish to pass a 
winter in Spain before I return ; ’tis a favorite country with me, 
for its climate, its manners, & its Natural History wch is as yet 
Vierge—parfaitement Pucelle. 

« An Irish Abbé, Chanoine de Dreux,* a great protégé of the 
Duke de Penthiévret & of his daughter the Duchess of Orléans, 
travels wth me—he has great animal spirits, great (?) much 
curlosity, no information, ...... . I was never so well in 
my life—all gout is gone—health, spirits, & color are return’d, 
& the D. of Dorset’s housekeeper at Knowle, daughter of 
Nurse Murton who had not seen me these 22 years knew me 
at first sight—it is now 13 weeks since I left D. hill. The high 
road is my Apothecary’s shop & my Horse my medicine—adieu 
dear Mary, do not grudge akiss or two extraordinary in my 
name to Lal Lal.” 


“ Bordeaux, 
ip Biorer Wey nail gate: 


‘A strong desire to see Monsr. de Secondatt a persuasion 


* The Abbé O’Cassidi. A letter at Downhill from the Duc de Penthiévre’s chamber- 
lain to him shows that the Abbé hoped through the Bishop’s influence to be made a Roman 
Catholic Bishop in Ireland. 

+ His Royal Highness Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon Duc de Penthiévre. 

+ The great French scientific agriculturist, Jean Baptiste Baron de Secondat, was 
the son of Montesquieu. Born 1716, he lived all his life at Bordeaux. He adopted the 
principles of 1789 and escaped persecution in the Revolution owing to the simplicity of 
his life and the glory of his father. Died 1796. (Nouvelle Dict. Biog.) 

The Bishop imported Claret to Ireland, purchased direct from the Baron de Secondat 
and made from his vineyards at Bordeaux, 


408 The Earl Bishop 


that he wished much to see me, an old longing to visit the 
Eastern Coast of Spain with the fine climate of Valentia, Andalusia 
&c. &c. made me take a short turn here where I shall stay a 
month & then proceed thro’ your old acquaintance Montauban, 
Carcassonne & Toulouse for Perpignan—my poor Abbé was 
forced to quit me & go into residence at Drew. . . Mr. Bur- 
roughs, Chaplain to the Duke of Dorset, had leave to accompany 
me as far as Tours, & there [ found a most pleasant Irish gentle- 
man who had sold out of the Country & was retir’d to Tours 
to learn the French language & enjoy the french blue sky of 
which we know so little in Ireland and he accompanys me thro’ 
Spain. We have five saddle horses, for the journey is long ; 
I have two led for myself—as soon as we pass Perpignan we 
shall find a perpetual sunshine, & such a succession of new objects 
as cannot fail to benefit the mind as much as the other will the 
body—our Project is to coast it by land (bien entendu) by Gib- 
raltar, Andalusia, peep into Don Quixote’s country, return by 
Algarve, Lisbon, Oporto, Gil Blas, Salamanca & Oviedo, thro’ 
Biscay to Bayonne & Bordeaux— 

“Tf you name this my dear to the Great Duchess (of Tuscany) 
it is possible she may give me letters for the Court, which you 
may enclose to me a la Poste Restante a Barcelona, or if you have 
a Spanish Minister at Florence with whom you are much ac- 
quainted he may indulge me with his Passport—what I most 
desire are letters from Litterati or to them—I propose to myself 
great pleasure, great health, & great improvement by this 
excursion ; all | want is a good Architect to copy the interesting 
buildings—& perhaps I may meet with such an one here.”’ 


‘* Dec. 12th. 


‘““Since writing the above, my dear Mary, our journey 
to Spain is suspended partly by the very bad accounts we 
receive from every quarter of the style of travelling in that 
country, everything even to a spit for roasting must be carried 
with us, & the Inns & Passadas are nothing more than bare 
walls with square holes made here & there for future generations 
to convert into windows. 

‘““In the meantime we are admirably well here—bien agréés, 
bien fétés & so forth—what will become of us when the merci- 
less frosts relent I know not—some unknown region I must 
explore for the sake both of my mind & body—perhaps visit 
Sicily & ascend Etna. The political tumult here is incredible & 
every morning relates some new debate of the preceding night—I 
only laugh at ’em, & say a frenchman turning Patriot in imi- 
tation of an Englishman is the fable ci the frog swelling to the 


The Earl Bishop 409 


size of an Ox—they laugh too & talk on—Yr letters my dear are 
still best directed to Marseilles, yet God only knows when we 
shall get there—but, if you have any thing very particular to 
say, address them to Mons. Peregeaux a Paris—Adieu, the 
Multitude of letters still before me shortens the answer to 
everyone.” 


On Christmas Day, 1788, the Bishop wrote to Peregeaux 
a Paris. (Letter in the possession of the Revd. Sydenham 
Hervey. ) 


““ SIRS, 

“My Servant in St. James’s Square has by some fatal 
mistake sent a Roll of paper on a Stick directed to me by the 
Diligence to your care instead of by the Post. Should you 
receive or recover it, I request you to send it immediately to 
Messrs. Skinner here at Bordeaux, as I am obliged to wait for 
it here, & postpone my journey to Marseilles. Mr. Abbé 
Cassidy says he left some silk stockings for me in your care— 
is it so >—-& a parcel of Prints are missing. 

LO DRISTOL 


While the Bishop was at Bordeaux his name was enthusias- 
tically honoured at Derry at a banquet held on December 7, 
1788, in commemoration of the Centenary of the “‘Shutting of 
the Gates,’ when a poem was recited in which he was extolled 
as a patriot and ‘a friend and benefactor of mankind.”’ 

It has been erroneously stated* that the Bishop was present 
at Derry in the following August when the commemoration of 
the Relief of Derry—‘‘ the Opening of the Gates ’’—was held. 
But in fact he remained abroad the whole of the year 1780. 

During the winter of 1788-89 and the following spring 
the Bishop was wandering in the South of France, as is indicated 
by a letter to Lady Erne dated “ Montpelier, 22nd March, ’89.”’ 


‘““My DEAREST Mary, 

‘“The weather has been so intolerably bad that I am 
yet arriv’d no further than our old acquaintance Montpelier. 
Tis true we travel very leisurely, & abide with every Prelate 
& Laick whom we like or who likes us: At Toulouse I had 
many reasons for wishing to pass much more time, but the 


* Mr. Classon Porter, in his pamphlet, states that the Bishop headed the procession 
to the Cathedral and the Lion’s Gate and laid the stone of the Triumphal Arch on 
the occasion of the Centenary commemoration in August, 1780. The Dublin Evening 
Post of August 14, 1789, however, in an elaborate account of the proceedings in which the 
names of those present are given, omits all mention of the Bishop. 


410 The Earl Bishop 


weather was so damp & our lodging so confin’d it was not 
feasible: but if ever you have occasion to pass that way, be 
sure not to omit visiting the very greatest curiosity of All 
Europe in its way; ’tis the Library of Count Mac-Carthy an 
Irishman by birth, & by taste & letters-Patent a Frenchman. 
It consists of Books not intended to be read but to be admir’d, 
old illegible Manuscripts illuminated in the most exquisite 
manner, & first editions of printed books wch look like Manu- 
scripts of the most beautifull handwriting,—all these either on 
Vellum or parchment, or such superfine paper you would take it 
for Parchment—then the binding in Blue & Red & yellow 
Morocco so superbly gilt that the binding often exceeds the cost 
of the book, and every page lined so delicately wth Red Ink 
that this article alone is worth more than an Ordinary binding— 

“Yr friends the Camelfords are at Monaco, & Le Viscomte 
de Polignac who corresponds with them tells me he expects 
them here—poor old Vicomte! you know I conclude that he 
had married his Gardener’s Daughter, & by an education bien 
soignée had made her a most accomplish’d woman, an excellent 
Mother & an invaluable wife ; whose whole solicitude was to 
fulfil the duties of her situation in every respect ; was visited 
& respected by all the first people here, & indeed could give no 
offence to any one. He has lost her & is inconsolable.”’ 


“ Tuesday, 23rd. 


“T was called away to dinner when in the middle of a fine 
sentence—today, such is the mutability of human affairs, 
Captain Cane who travels with me is taken with a shivering, 
a puking &c. &c. & we are prevented from travelling—heaven 
only knows when we shall reach Marseilles—it was impossible 
to visit Spain, the Disaccommodations are so great. Another 
year will I hope produce better roads & better Inns—for the 
Climate is superior to everything, & the Inhabitants as honest 
as Human Nature can be. 

‘“This Frippery Country (France) is still the same, a skip- 
ping dancing tribe—they are fit only for themselves—and 
when the circling glass goes round they talk of Beauties which 
they never saw, & Fancy raptures which they never felt—All 
now is commotion, & all soon will be sing-song, in the meantime 
the hot heads let one another’s blood, the Clergy rise against 
the Bishops, & the laity against the Nobles. . . . Adieu my 
dear Child—I now must finish or I lose the Post—one kiss to dear 
little Caroline. 


“TI observe you say something of inconveniences from your 


The Earl Bishop 411 


letters not having reach’d me. I send you a draft at a 
Venture as Captain Cane’s illness may retard us considerably— 
Adieu.”’ 


The Bishop could not have foreseen the upheaval which 
was soon to engulf the France such as he knew, and such as 
he was never to see again. But in the summer of this year he 
must have heard of greater and greater “commotion” with 
little prospect of ‘“‘ sing-song.’’ He had by that time left France 
for Germany. 

He was expected at Pyrmont in July, as appears from two 
letters addressed to him by the Prince Augustus of Saxe-Gotha 
(among the Downhill Papers). The Prince, who had formerly 
travelled so much in Italy with the Bishop and his wife, writes 
in the effusive and exaggerated terms then the fashion among 
those who affected the French manner : 


‘A Pyrmont, 
ce 11) buillet, 1780: 


‘Que vous étes adorable, My lord, de vous souvenir de mon 
existence, et de me donner rendez-vous a Pyrmont. . . . Plus 
cette marque de bonté m’est chére et précieuse de votre part, 
plus ma joie est excessive. . . . Venez donc, my lord, entre les 
bras de votre ancien ami et Serviteur qui est si heureux d’avance 
par l’idée seule de vous voir et de vous assurer de vive voix de 
son tendre et inviolable attachement pour vous. .. . 

‘“ AUGUSTE DE SAXE-GOTHA.” 


By a second letter from Prince Augustus to the Bishop 
dated ‘‘ Pyrmont, 22 Juillet, 1789,” it appears that the Bishop 
had dispatched thither his old servant Barwick with a letter 
inviting the Prince to join him at Francfort-sur-le-Main. But 
His Highness had made other plans and entreats the Bishop 
to hasten to Pyrmont and to give him “un bonheur si inespéré 
que celui de vous revoir enfin aprés une séparation de plus de 
onze années. Excusez cet horrible barbouillage et ne Jlattri- 
buez, my lord, qu’a l’impatience avec lequel mon cceur vole au 
devant du votre.” 

These letters the Bishop endorsed “all answered August 
31, from Hanover.” In October he was at Dresden. A letter 
from him to his bankers in Paris, Messrs. Peregeaux, refers to 
the model of a pagoda belonging to the Duc de Penthiévre at 
Chanteloup, the Bishop desiring to erect a similar one at Bally- 
scullion. 


412 The Earl Bishop 


‘A Dresde, 
“ce r5me 8, 1780. 

‘““ Messrs. Peregeaux sont priés de la part le Comte de Bristol 
de faire tenir une lettre incessamment par des Bonnes Mains a 
M. Le Duc de Penthiévre.* 

‘‘Son Altesse aura la bonté leur consigner un modéle de 
sa Pagode, lequel Messrs. Peregeaux fera passer a Mr. Garvey 
4 Rouen pour étre remis par le premier Batiment, a 

“Mr. Shanahan, 
‘‘ Architecte du Comte de Bristol, 


bY 


arGorkerent brent 


There are two letters at Downhill addressed to the Bishop 
by the Duc de Penthiévre, signed ‘‘ L. J. M. de Bourbon,” which 
show that this highly esteemed Prince and his correspondent 
were on terms of mutual friendship and regard. Written in 
1789, both relate to the promised model of the Pagoda, which 
three years later, it appears, the Bishop had not received.t 


At Downhillis a letter from the Duc de Penthiévre, Chamber- 
lain to the Count du Authier, who writes (September 8, 1792) to 


* Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duc de Penthiévre, son of the Comte de Toulouse 
and grandson of Louis XIV. Born in 1725, this eminent personage, a great patron of 
men of letters, was reckoned the possessor of the most prodigious property in Europe, and 
on account of his worth and goodness was much respected. After the death of his wife, 
a Princess of Este, he became melancholic. He survived his son, the Prince de Lamballey, 
and the Princess (whose head was carried on a pike before the windows of Marie Antoinette), 
and died in 1793. 

+ Revd. Sydenham Hervey’s collection. 


{ ‘‘On ne peut estre plus reconnoissant que je le suis, My lord, de la trés obligeante 
lettre que j’ai regu de vostre part ; je désirerois beaucoup meériter la fagon de penser que 
vous volltes (voulez) bien avoir sur mon compte. II] me tarde infiniment de scavoir le 
modéle de la pagode de chanteloup remis entre vos mains, je ne cesse d’en presser la 
fabrication, si j’avois quelque chose a faire venir d’angleterre j’userois avec confiance de 
la permission que vous me donnes (donnez). 

“ L’abbé O’Cassidy estoit inquiet de ne point avoir de vos nouvelles, je lui ai Mandé 
que j’en avois regu. 

‘“ Je vous demande, My lord, de ne me pas refuser la justice d’estre persuadé des senti- 
ments distingués que j’aurai toute ma vie pour vous. 

“L. J. M. DE BoursBon. 

** Chateauneuf sur Loire, 

“* 23 Mars, 1789, 
“Mr. le Comte de Bristol.”’ 


‘““ Je viens de recevoir, My lord, la lettre que vous estes donné la peine de m’écrire le 
13 de ce mois; ce malheureux modéle de la pagode de Chanteloup qui ne finist point ne 
peust pas encore estre remis a Messrs. Peregeaux, il leur sera délivré tout le plus prompte- 
ment possible. 

‘““ Le sort de pauvre Abbé O’Cassidy éprouve de l’incertitude ; je ne scais cependant, 
si les chappelles Castrales (nous nommons ainsi les chappelles de chateau) lesquelles sont 
entiéresment dans la main des fondateurs ou leurs représentants quant au temporel, ne 
sont pas d’une classe particuliére ; quelque chose qui arrive, je m’occuperois de lui autant 
que je le pourrois, dans tous les cas. 

“On ne peut estre plus sensible que je le suis a l’amitié que vous voulez bien me 
témoigner ; je vous demande, My Lord, de n’en pas refuser la continuation & la sincérité 
des sentiments distingués que j’aurai toute ma vie pour vous 


“L. J. M. pe Bourson.”’ 


The Earl Bishop 413 


the Abbé O’Cassidy advising him to send as quickly as possible 
the model of the Pagoda to the Bishop ; and at the same time 
to “write to this Bishop and ask him when he writes to thank 
Monseigneur, to say that he desires to see you made a Bishop— 
placé épiscopalement—et qu’il scait que le Clergé de France va 
beaucoup perdre de son bienétre—et surtout un pauvre chanoine 
de Dreux ”’ (owing to the Revolution): The Bishop was to ask 
Monseigneur to write to the Cardinal de Bernis at Rome to 
procure for the Abbé the promise of the next vacant Catholic 
Bishopric in Ireland. 

During the autumn of 1789 the Bishop associated with 
Prince Ferdinand of Wiirtemberg, and by his care of the Prince 
during a dangerous illness earned the gratitude of the young 
man and that of his mother, Princess Eugene of Wiirtemberg. 
The Princess, a niece of Frederick the Great, a clever woman 
who has been described as the “enlightened mother” of her 
large family, writes to the Bishop from “ Montbéliard, ce 
6 Nov. 1789,” with regard to her son Ferdinand: “C’est lui 
qui me parle, avec une reconnoissance bien vive, des soins que 
Vous lui avez prodigué et je m’empresse de partager avec lui, 
milord, tous les sentimens de sensibilité et de gratitude, qu’il 
vous avoue pour la vie. Je vous remercie, Milord d’avoir 
distrait la Douleur que me donne la maladie de mon fils, pour 
le plaisir attaché au bonheur de voir s’interesser a lui une 
Personne de votre mérite ... Mon cceur vous portera a 
jamais le tribut de sa plus vive reconnaissance . .. Votre 
trés humble et dévouée servante Dorothée de Prusse, Princesse 
de Wirtemberg.”” (Letter at Downhill.)* | 
_ A letter of later date from Prince Ferdinand to the Bishop 
is expressed in terms of warm affection: ‘“‘ Vos souvenirs Votre 
estime, Votre amitié, sont du baume pour les plaies profondes 
de mon cceur qui vous aime, autant qu’il vous respecte, et 
vous honore.’”’ The curious fact appears that the Bishop had 


* Letter at Downhill. Frédérique-Dorothée-Sophie, daughter of the Margrave of 
Brandenbourg-Schwedt, by Sophie Dorothée, sister of Frederick the Great, born 1736, 
married Prince Eugéne de Wiirtemberg—their sixth child, Ferdinand, was born 1763. Their 
eldest son, Frederick William, became the first King of Wiirtemberg (who married for his 
second wife the Princess Royal of England, daughter of George III.). Their eldest 
daughter became the Empress Marie of Russia—wife of the Emperor Paul. 

Letter at Downhill dated ‘‘ Montbéliard, ce 10 de Mars, 1790,” endorsed by the Bishop, 
answered 20th April, 1790, and invited to England for a year. In this letter the Prince 
Ferdinand laments the death of the Emperor Joseph IJ. and of his own beloved sister, 
Elizabeth, who at the age of fifteen had not long before married the Emperor’s nephew 
and eventual heir, Francis: ‘‘ Tout le bonheur,’’ writes the bereaved brother, ‘‘ que je 
pouvais attendre dans les Etats de L’Empereur a disparu comme un songe.... Jl ne 
me reste de tant d’Espérances que des regrets inutiles et une douleur bien profonde. .. . 
Ah cher et respectable Ami, vous, dont l’Ame sensible tenoit si bien tous les liens et les 
sentimens de l’amitié, pleurez avec moi, en me permettant de trouver dans votre cceur 
toutes les consolations que le mien me refuse. . . .” 


VOCs iT: 6 


414 The Earl Bishop 


solicited, for an English protégé of his own, nomination as 
officer in the Prince’s Austrian regiment. This Prince of 
Wiirtemberg, a nephew of the reigning Duke—the beneficent 
ruler whom the Bishop had visited at Stuttgart and nicknamed 
“ Déja-déja ’—was one of a curiously cosmopolitan family, 
he and his brothers being respectively in the military service 
of Russia, Prussia and Austria, while their father, Prince Eugéne, 
was Governor of Montbéliard, the ancient inheritance of the 
family in France, on the borders of Alsace, and the eldest of 
these brothers was eventually to owe his kingly Crown of 
Wirtemberg to the good graces of Napoléon. No sooner was 
the Bishop’s request made than it was granted: “ Votre 
protégé,” replies the young Prince, “peut compter sur tout 
lempressement que je lui dois a titre de Compatriote de mon 
ami (the Bishop). Le premier Drapeau vacant 4 mon nomination 
lui apartient. Dés ce que cette place d’Officier sera vacant 
dans mon Régiment je vous en ferai part. J’attend de vos 
nouvelles avec toute l’impatience d’un ami qui vous porte dans 
SON Cheunss 122% 

The Bishop was everywhere féted on his tour in Germany. 
He writes to Lady Erne from Bamberg on November 6, 
1789: “‘ You will wonder my dearest Mary, at not having 
heard from me of so long a time, & still more at hearing from 
me at this time of the year from the centre of Germany—but 
the truth is, my dear Child, Iam so occupied & so amus’d, so 
fété par tout, that I cannot get on—& my curiosity is as in- 
satiable as if I were five & twenty—this country is full of natural 
history & of natural historians. The roads are so bad they give 
me full leisure to study the country; & the inhabitants so 
civil from the Prince down to the Peasant that nothing is hid 
from me—my common course is a Circle, & like a Planet, a 
vagabond star, I almost turn round my own axis whilst I make 
another revolution round the Sun—in a few days [ shall arrive 
within a few miles of Augsburg, & then like a Comet strike off 
at a Tangent to Francfort where I expect to meet a Professor 
of Natural History whom the Elector has lent me, tho’ he was 
the Director of his Cabinet. From thence we go to Mayence, 
Manheim, to the dear Princess of Baden, so to Stuttgart—déja 
déja—and at last to Augsburg—then dash into the Tyrol, & 
so for Italy—but when or where as yet I know not—If you have 
a mind to write to me direct a la Poste restante to Innspruck 
where I have business will keep me at least a week—The 
Blessed, says the Latin proverb, never count hours, but lI 
count neither days nor weeks, & whereas others lay their cares 
under their Pillows & resume them the next morning, I lay my 


The Earl Bishop ALS 


spirits there to resume them at day-break—for this body of ours, 
my dearest Mary, is but a Fiddle, & the Soul a Tune wch depends 
on the Rosin given to the Fiddle. 

‘‘ I have long expected the famous & aimable Madame de la 
Reck, sister of the reigning Dutchess of Courland to accom- 
pany me to Italy—but her domesticks are all fallen ill, & she 
is detain’d at Halberstat—if I do not find her at Francfort I 
must proceed without her. The Dutchess of Brunswick (sister 
of George III. The Bishop had visited the Duchess at Bruns- 
wick this summer, 1789) writes continually to prevent me 
forgetting next Summer at Little Richmond near Brunswick, & 
only wishes to know what circumstances can make it as com- 
fortable to you as it will be pleasant to her—Let me know my 
dear what Berger, More,* Durnot & Mr. Pye are about (painters 
in Rome). Is Hewetson employ’d, & in what ?—have you 
seen the large picture of Alexander & his Physician & do you 
approve it ? ft 

" Is Lady Caroline making her usual progress ? Mr. Eden 
(afterwards Lord St. Helens) at Dresden speaks of her with 
raptures, but especially of you. I do not think either he or 
his poor wite can last beyond this winter. Imagine Mr. Fitzher- 
bert going Minister to Madrid—-what can that mean ? and who 
are his Patrons ? are you as great a favorite with him as ever 
& do you hear from him ? Who do you imagine I found at 
Dresden ? without Man or maid—who with a Coach tumbling 
to shivers, & a quantity calculated to shiver it—Only poor 
dear Mrs. Palmer, but did you ever, Madam? Did you ever 
hear of such a plan of travelling ? quite alone, quite in spirits, 
yet out of humour with almost all this world—she knows every 
motion you make, every company you keep, the same of Eliza- 
beth &c. &c. 

My house at Bally-scullion, which you don’t care about, is 
finish’d—the Offices will begin next Spring.’ (Here follows 
a description of the house.) ‘‘ Comment cela vous plait-il ma 
fille? Vi piace, mia figlia & ti par di buon gusto? Qui si 
godera, ti assicuro. I want some beautyful chimney pieces 


* Jacob More (1740-1793), a native of Edinburgh, he resided in Rome, where Prince 
Borghese engaged him to decorate the Villa Borghese. _ A landscape painter of merit, he 
imitated Claude. His portrait by himself is in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence. 


t This picture was by Jacques Berger of Rome. A letter at Downhill from him to 
the Bishop (dated 8 Janvier, 1791) expresses his gratitude for the Bishop’s kindness 
during his illness and for offering him change of air—‘‘ puissent les bonnes ceuvres de 
votre Excellence avoir le récompense qu’elles méritent.’’ The letter is endorsed by the 
Bishop, ‘‘ Answered, and bespoke sacrifice of Isaac and Alexander’s Physician.” 

Berger, a native of Chambéry, was one of the best colourists of his time. ‘‘ Lord Bristol ’’ 
(says the Dict. Nat. Biog. Universelle) ‘in 1786 drew him from the extreme misery in 
which he lived in Rome, by giving him a pension and buying five of his pictures.” 


VOLCUI: 6* 


416 The Earl Bishop 


pray tell Cardelli so—at the moment I am writing to you the 
officer who din’d wth me has sent his Regimental Band & they 
are playing under my window on the sixth November at eight 
of the night. 

“Let me know what English you have at Rome—are Mr. 
& Mrs. Vans-Agnew with you ? if they are, pray show them all 
the civility you can—for their attentions to me at Lescar they 
deserve it—I never met with more. Adieu, remember me 
particularly to Mr. More, & give Caroline a thousand tender 
kisses. Adieu my dear Mary.” 


If the Bishop made all the circuitous peregrinations he 
proposed, he must have travelled “‘ like a comet,’’ for he arrived 
in Rome before the end of the year. Dashing through the Tyrol 
on his way from Germany, he is to be traced at Brixen where he 
associated with the Count de Brandis, Canon of Augsbourg and 
Brixen. The Count Canon afterwards wrote a letter to the 
Count Bishop alluding to the latter’s visit, and discoursing 
about the geological formation of the neighbouring mountains.* 
It appears from this letter that the Bishop proceeded to visit 
his son, Lord Hervey, at Florence, and expected to find his “ fille 
chérie ’’ at Rome. 

Arthur Young, now on his Continental travels, records, in 
December (1789), that he learns that Lord Bristol is somewhere 
in Italy, and that Lady Erne is probably at Turin. “ My 
Stars,’ he adds, “‘ will not be propitious if I do not see them 
both.” t 

At Rome, in the winter of 1789-90, the Bishop met Madame 
Vigée le Brun, then at the height of her fame. She records 
in her memoirs that at Lord Bristol’s personal request she made 
for him at this time a copy of her celebrated portrait of herself, 
now in the Uffizzi Gallery in Florence. She also painted Lord 
Bristol’s own portrait at Rome, which she describes as “‘ jusqu’- 
aux genoux.”’ 

Proceeding from Rome to Naples early in 1790, Madame 
Lebrun “ took a fresh portrait of Lord Bristol,” she says, ‘“‘ whom 
I found again at Naples. One may say he passed his life on 
Vesuvius, for he ascended the mountain every day.”’ 

The latter picture is now in the present Lord Bristol’s house 


* Letter at Downhill, dated ‘‘ Brixen ce 3me Janvier, 1790.’ The writer alludes to 
the formation by an earthquake of the wonderful Lake of ‘ wage (in the Dolomite 
country) which, he says, one saw form itself not long ago on the borders of our principality 


in the Republic of Venice-—" formé par la chute de deux montagnes isolés, qui a arrété le 
cours d’une riviére.’” (The villages engulfed may still be traced beneath the blue waters 
of the lake :—W. S. C. P.) 


+ Young’s “ Tour in France,’’ under date December 18, 1789. 





Frederick Hervey, fourth Eazl of Bristol. Vesuvius in background. 


Portrait by Madame V. Le Brun, painted in Naples, 1790 ; formerly in 
St. James's Square, now at Ickworth, 


[To face page 416. 





The Earl Bishop 417 


in St. James’s Square. It represents the Bishop down to the 
knees, and Vesuvius depicted in the distance shows that it 
was painted at Naples. 

We have now traced the Bishop as being at Naples in the 
early months of 1790—probably this was a flying visit from 
Rome. | 

A letter from a highly-placed Italian lady, which is so warm 
in expression it may be termed a billet-doux, was received 
by the Bishop on the eve of his departure from Naples. Un- 
dated, it is addressed, “A. S. E. (a son excellence) My lord 
Comte de Bristol, Crocelli’’—(the name of the Bishop’s hotel 
at Naples). 


‘“ MON CHER MyLorp, 
‘On m’assure chez moi que vous partez demain, c’est 
un bruit d’assassin, de s’en aller sans me voir—cet aprés diner 
je passerai chez vous, et si méme vous ne dinez pas au logis, 
je vous y attendrai jusqu’a minuit Dites moi done l’heure 
que vous y serez, et soyez persuadé, mon cher milord de 
lempressement extréme avec le quel je désire de me dire votre 
affectionnée Amie—La Duchesse de San Clémente. Dimanche.”’ 

(As this letter is at Downhill, among the papers which the 
Bishop left there on his final departure from Ireland in 1701, 
the date of it could not have been that of one of his later visits 
at Naples, as obviously no letters addressed to him on such 
occasions would be found at Downhill; though many letters 
from him, written during the latter phase of his life, are there.) 


The Bishop returned to Rome in the spring of 1790 and 
there gave an order to Flaxman for one of the great sculptor’s 
greatest works. In connection with this, he wrote the following 
note (Add. MSS. (British Museum), 36652, f. 121): 


‘“ Rome, 
“ March 5th, 1790. 


‘Mr. Flaxman is to make the Group of the Fury of Athamas 
of the size of the Laocoon for the Price of about 600 guineas 
Mr. More will be so good as to supply him gradually wth the 
sums necessary and to give his Genius every encouragement he 
desires. 


Peo RISTOL 


Flaxman, in an undated etter to Sir William Hamilton, 
refers in grateful terms to tnis commission from the Bishop. 
(Hamiiton and Nelson Papers: Morrison Coll., Vol. I., 237.) 


418 The Earl Bishop 


After mentioning that he (Flaxman) had intended leaving 
Rome—evidently from want of employment—-he says: “ but 
I have the honour to inform you at present with much more 
satisfaction that I shall be detained three years longer by the 
Noble patronage of Lord Bristol who has ordered me to make 
a large group for him in marble of the Fury of Athamas from 
Ovid’s Metamorphoses from a small composition of my own. 
I cannot conclude my letter without telling you the liberality 
of Lord Bristol has reanimated the fainting body of Art in Rome ; 
tor his generosity to me I must be silent, for I have not words 
to express its value.”’ 

And yet despite this warm testimonial to the Bishop’s 
generosity it has been said that Flaxman’s relations with 
him over the payment for this great work—the Fury of Athamas 
—were a source of dissatisfaction to Flaxman; and it would 
seem that grave injustice has been done to the Bishop in the 
matter. The statement which has been made* that this money 
was unpunctually doled out is certainly contrary to fact, as is 
proved by Flaxman’s own receipts on the back of the above- 
quoted note of commission from the Bishop. The first instal- 
ment of £50 was paid on May 4, 1790, and the whole of the {600 
was paid off by August 3, 1791—that is long before the work 
was completed,f which Flaxman had anticipated would take 
him three years to execute. 

A. Cunningham, in his essay on Flaxman (“‘ Lives of the Most 
Eminent Painters” (1830), Vol. III., page 303), says that the 
stipulated sum, £600, was ‘“‘ wholly insufficient; the proud 
sculptor made no complaint, he wrought early and late till he 
completed his group and delivered it into the hands of the 
nobleman . . . such a work would have been cheap at £2,000. 
Flaxman must have lost some hundreds of pounds by this 
piece of patronage.” That Flaxman spared neither labour 
nor money on his masterpiece was but characteristic of the 
great man he was. As, however, it is admitted that he “ made 


* See D.N.B. under Flaxman (A. Cunningham’s ‘‘ Lives of the Most Eminent 


Painters ’’): ‘‘ the price fixed was £600, the instalments were unpunctually doled out.” 
+ Notes by Flaxman on the back of the Bishop’s letter (36652, Add. MSS., f. 121) : 
Rome Recd. Y rial Sas © & 

May 4,179 on 50) eS 
PUY TB are “ 50 —  — 
Aug. II, — 50 — > — 
Oct. 14, — sjo—-  — 
Nov. 3, — 50—- — 
Deoi1 7, i a 5so—- ——— 
Mar. 16, 1791 — 5so0— —— 
May iad a _ 200 —  — 
Aug. oo 5o—_—- — 


8- 3, 
(This amounts to £600 


— 


The Earl Bishop 419 


no complaint,’ it seems the more unreasonable to blame the 
Bishop, who could not be supposed to know that he was ex- 
pected to pay at least double the sum agreedupon. As Flaxman 
was “‘ never greedy of gold’’ (Cunningham’s words) the griev- 
ance was probably of his friend’s making and not of his own. 
This splendid creation of genius, consisting of four figures of the 
heroic size, is now at Ickworth.* Itis, in fact, the only specimen 
to find a place there out of those later collections which the 
Bishop formed expressly to adorn it.f 

In June, 1790, the Bishop was still in Rome. In that 
month, we know by the diary of Angelica Kauffman, that he 
sat for her fine portrait of him which is now at the Downhill. 
She describes it as a “life-size half length figure seated next 
to a pedestal on which is a marble bust and head of Mercante,”’ 
and states that it was “five spans 1o high, and four spans 
2 wide,’ and that it cost 120 Zecchini which was equivalent 
to 258 Roman crowns: it was handed to a painter, Mr. More, 
to be sent off September 24, and was paid for on October 25 
through the Bishop’s banker Torlonia.t 

No information is forthcoming by which to trace the Bishop’s 
movements abroad during the next five months. He returned 
to Ireland in the following November. Dr. Halliday of Belfast, 
in a letter to his friend Lord Charlemont, gives a peep at the 
Bishop soon after his arrival. 

‘* Belfast, 
“Nov. 8, 1790. 


“T had the honour of sitting an hour with my Lord Bristol, 
last night as brisk, young and blooming as ever. He seems 
to expect a counter revolution in France, & that the Braban- 
cons will be settled by the mediators. In one thing he proved 
a true prophet. We shall have no Spanish War, he said; and 
I am just told that the Convention is signed. England has 
sold her honour that she may sell hercotton.’’ (Hist. Commis- 
sion, Charlemont MSS., Vol. II., page 131.) 


The following paragraph appeared in the Dublin Evening 
Post for November 25, 1790, and it seems no improbable 


* When the Bishop’s property in Rome was seized by the French this sculpture was 
sold by them. It was eventually purchased by his son, the first Marquis of Bristol. (See 
Gage’s Thingoe Hundred, 306.) 

+ H. Crabbe Robinson saw ‘‘ The Fury of Athamas’”’ at Ickworth in 1829 as noted 
in ota Diary. 

¢ This picture—the only portrait which Angelica painted of the Bishop—is now at 
Downhill. The Bishop, in the codicil to his will, added at Aosta, 26th February, 1794, 
states: ‘‘I give to Madame Diroff wife of Senator Diroff at Petersburg my portrait 
painted by Angelica, & desire Mrs. Henry Bruce to be so good as to send it to her at 
Petersburg.”’ 


420 The Earl Bishop 


conjecture that the “‘ very eminent character’ referred to in it 
was no other than the Bishop of Derry who had passed through 
London lately, on his return to Ireland from the Continent : 

“It is confidently asserted that a very eminent character 
of this country when lately in London received a marked in- 
dignity at the Court of St. James’s. On his soliciting a favour 
from the greatest personage, instead of receiving a gracious 
answer, that personage turned short on his heel without deign- 
ing to make him any reply. The next parlamentary campaign 
in the House of Commons will probably show the effect of this.”’ 

The people of Derry would be likely to resent a slight from 
the King to their popular Bishop and consider it a slight to 
themselves ; and they would be hkely to take occasion to mark 
the regard and affection they felt for him. It seems probable 
that such a motive inspired their conduct at this time. Ina 
paragraph of the same newspaper we read : 


“‘ The Citizens and Corporation of Derry are making prepara- 
tions to honour the Earl of Bristol on his arrival among them 
from the Continent by every mark of esteem and affection ; a 
deputation from both bodies are to wait on his lordship to 
learn the time of his intended visit, and to notify their intention. 
In every character in which this prelate has appeared, he has 
shone forth with a lustre which attends only on the conjunction 
of a good heart with fine talents. As aman, anda denizen of 
the world, the Earl of Bristol has been distinguished for his 
zeal in the cause of freedom, as a peer of Ireland he is honoured 
for his attention to her peculiar interests—interests which in 
the hour of trial his indefatigable exertions to secure and promote, 
shewed to be nearest his heart ; and as an Irish Bishop—Derry 
stands eminently distinguished by a singular line of conduct,— 
a uniform promotion of native clergy to the benefices of his 
diocese. Since the See of Derry was filled by the/Earl, every 
vacancy in the Irish Church has been filled—as every vacancy 
in the Irish Church ought to be—by Irishmen.” 


As the result of the deputation to the Bishop it was arranged 
that the ceremonial reception of him should take place on the 
30th November (1790). Accordingly “‘ about 3 o’tlock in the 
aiternoon of that day his Lordship arrived at the Waterside, 
and was received on the Bridge by the Corporation, citizens, and 
Volunteers of Derry, when a procession was formed to the 
Episcopal Palace where the Bishop was presented with the ad- 
dresses of the two former bodies ; after which his Lordship and 
all the gentlemen came to the steps in front of the Palace, and 


The Earl Bishop 421 


there Captain Fergusson read the address of the Londonderry 
Volunteers, in presence of the Company, under arms, and an 
immense multitude of spectators. When his Lordship had 
delivered his elegant and most animated answer, the Volunteers 
fired three volleys, accompanied by the loud and repeated ac- 
clamations of the populace. In the evening his Lordship dined 
with the Corporation at the New Inn.’’* These addresses 
related chiefly to the same topics of congratulation ; the safe 
return of the Bishop to Ireland, the prospect of the speedy 
completion of the Bridge, and the princely munificence of his 
Lordship in his liberal support of all works of utility and 
ornament in the city of Derry; in addition to which the 
Volunteers referred to the fact that at the commencement of 
their institution his Lordship was among the first to express 
his decided approbation of the principles upon which they took 
up arms, and to confer a distinguished honour upon their 
corps, by becoming a member of their association. The Bishop 
in his reply to the Corporation, after stating the great principles 
on which he had obtained their esteem and affection, concluded 
by expressing his own convictions, for the benefit of all future 
Bishops of Derry, in these remarkable words: ‘“‘ Nor can I 
doubt my carrying them to the grave, where a silent but in- 
structive stone, shall often admonish my latest successor, that 
the softest down in his pillow is the love of his fellow citizens, 
and their applause the brightest jewel in is mitre , that to preserve 
his dignity he must learn to waive it; and truly to enjoy his 
wealth, he must have the courage to share it.”’ 

In his reply to the Citizens the Bishop spoke of his predilec- 
tions for Ireland, “ as having originated from a sense of duty, and 
of friendship,’ though it seems strange that, among those 
duties, he referred to that of personal residence in which he 
himself was so deficient—“ the duties of an extensive and opulent 
Prelacy,”’ he said, “‘ wear a superior character, anda more binding ; 
they summon loudly to residence and discipline, and a pious 
discharge of such duties can alone vindicate, or insure, the 
splendid rent-roll annexed to this office.”’ 

To the Volunteers the Bishop referred to their virtuous 
association . . . ““ whose praises still echo to the remotest regions 
in Europe ”’ and described it as “that .. . auxiliary to an 
almost impotent Government, which secured the internal 
peace, and fixed the external safety of this kingdom ;”’ and he 
recollected, with equal pleasure and pride, his former official 

* This account is taken from Maturin’s “ Bishop of Derry,” a rare pamphlet. 


Maturin gives as his authority ‘‘a curious original document dated December 3, 1790, 
recently (1867) reprinted in the local newspapers.”’ 


422 The Earl Bishop 


connection with that body, and the “unlimited delegation ” 
which they conferred upon him; while he concluded by as- 
suring them that his sentiments were invariably the same,” 
and that he was ‘‘as eager as ever to run the same goal with 
them,’ while his exertions would be “equally vigorous to 
obtain the great objects which they had in view.” 

Laudatory comments on the Bishop’s sayings and doings 
appear in the Dublin Evening Post during December. One 
‘“ Pollis ’ drops into poetry in a lengthy and, it must be con- 
fessed, prosy poem, and after reference to the “ Spartan vigour 
and Roman virtue” displayed by the dauntless citizens of 
Derry a hundred years before in the ever memorable siege, 
he proceeds : 


‘‘°Tis thine, my Lord, from souls like these to find 
The purest joy that can exalt the mind,”’’ etc. 


Finally : “On Tuesday previous to Christmas day the 
Karl of Bristol set off from Derry on his return to the Castle 
of Bellaghy (Ballyscullion) after displaying in that city several 
new and striking instances of princely munificence. It is 
impossible to describe the regret that was visible on the 
countenance of every citizen at his Lordship’s departure.” 


CHAPTER XLII 


1791 


E now come to the last year of the Bishop’s residence 

in Ireland. His movements and interests during it 

are shown by a few scattered letters surviving out of his 
correspondence, to the vastness of which he often alludes. 


He wrote to Lady Erne :* 


‘“ Bellaghy, 
Wrst bebwE70 Lot 


“T write to you my dearest Mary barely to give you an 
anecdote of yr friend Cardinal Bernis wch enchants me, & I 
am certain will delight you. 

“On the day my friend wrote from Rome, an express had 
arriv’d from Paris announcing to the Card, that in his future 
nomination of Bishops no Regard wd be had to the Pope ; that 
all nobles were requir’d to return home, & the Card, specifically, 
was ordered to take the New Oath. | 

“His Eminence answered with a firmness worthy an old 
Roman. He had already taken an oath to His God, his religion 
& his King, & he would take no other. 

“°Tis said Prince Borghese has made him most noble offers. 

“The Begars as Lady Emily (Lady Emily Hervey, sister of 
the Bishop) calls them (the French) are grown more contempt- 
ible than ever. They are a band of Monkeys who have burst 
into a shop of old China & are breaking all about them. Dont 
fail either you or Lou to send me the very earliest intelligence 
publick or private that you can of the} dear Empress’s progress 


* Mrs. J. Talbot’s Papers. 


+ Near Ballyscullion—Among the papers at Downhill is a letter from a Mr. Richard 
Williams (28th March, 1791), offering to sell to the Bishop the woods, park and buildings 
at Bellaghy. It is endorsed by the Bishop, “T accepted with thanks and desired at least 
half the wood to be cut down.” 


The Empress Catherine II. 
423 


ADA The Earl Bishop 


towards Constantinople, she will be the Messiah of the Greeks 
& of Grecian literature & Art. 

“TI fear the Margravine’s* account was but too true—He 
was desperately in love wth a lady of high fashion at home— 
’Tis said he has jilted her when all was ready for nuptials—what 
is become of his Government under his Sovereign, +t has he quitted 
the service too ? Adieu I am as usual up to the eyes in letters 
but ever yr affectionate B.”’ 


The Bishop wrote again to Lady Erne : 


“ Downhill, 
“ April Ist yors 


“Yr letter, my dearest Mary, of April (March) 16th, is but 
just arrived, & I lose no time according to yr request to give my 
final answer about Barwick the second ; which is that he will 
not suitt—but I hope in God that dear Mr. P. (Pitt) will not 
think of War, as I dare believe he will not, as we have never 
been the richer nor the stronger for Continental connexions, & 
that I verily believe we could get more for driving the cir- 
cumcised (?) Dogs out, than for keeping them in§ besides it is next 
to impossible but that, if Semiramis (Catherine the Second) should 
go to Byzantium, she should lose either by intestine division 
or by foreign depredations the northern part of her Empire ; 
& then she wd have to begin anew in the South what Peter the 
Great effected long ago in the North; & that in a country 
stript of Inhabitants, & so inur’d to slavery that they would 
never be capable of any exploit: add to this, the moment she 
should settle in Byzantium, Vienna & the near Eastern Empire, 
Sweden, & Prussia, would eternally be plucking her best 
feathers in the North & the maritime powers would be de- 
stroying her fleets as fast as she equipped them. But literature 
& the Arts and the sciences would gain rapidly by the culture 
of the descendants of Archimedes, Plato, Aristotle, Phidias & 
Praxiteles. Do try to know dear Mrs. E. Hervey|| I think 


* “ The Margravine ’’ means the celebrated Lady Craven who had lived notoriously 
with the Margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach and Baireuth during the lifetime of her 
husband. Lord Craven was alive at this time, but died in the following September, 1791, 
and Lady Craven married the Margrave on October 13th. The Margravine of Anspach, 
a noted traveller, died in 1828. 


{ The Margrave had sold his principality to Frederick William II. of Prussia in 1790 
for 1,500,000 francs. 


{ Barwick the first was an old servant who had accompanied the Bishop and his wife 
on their travels in 1777-1779. 


§ This alludes to the prospect of the Empress Catherine invading the Turks. 


|| Miss Elizabeth Hervey was the unmarried daughter of his uncle, the Hon. William 
flervey. She was born July 13, 1730, and died in Park Street, April 30, 1803. 


The Earl Bishop 425 


she will be a great acquisition to you—my dearest Mary ever 
most affectionately yrs.—B.”’ 


On the same day the Bishop wrote to his agents in Paris 
a letter which shows him in correspondence with the eminent 
agriculturist Secondat whom he had visited at Bordeaux a few 
years before. The subject “‘of the greatest consequence ”’ 
may have related to agriculture, or perhaps merely to the re- 
plenishing of his cellars at home, for he got all his claret at cost 
price direct from Secondat’s vintages at Bordeaux. 

While owing to “the disturbed’’ state of France many 
of his letters to Messrs. Peregeaux had miscarried, the following 
is endorsed as received by them. (Original belongs to Rev. 
Sydenham Hervey.) 


‘A Derry, 
beCeTStUAVILL 71708, 


“I1m’est de la plus grande conséquence, Messieurs, que Mr. 
de Secondat recoive lincluse. Je vous prie de m’en accuser 
la réception, et de lui parvenir, puisque tant d’autres ont 
manqué. 

‘¢ LE COMTE DE BRISTOL, 
“ EVEQUE DE DERRY.” 


During 1791 the Bishop wrote two letters to Sir William 
Hamilton, one before and one after the latter’s marriage to 
Emma Lyon. A statement made by a modern authoress 
alleging a rupture by Hamilton of his friendship with the Bishop 
on this marriage is without foundation,* as is also the insinuation 
that the cause of it was a supposed liaison between the Bishop 
and Emma before her marriage. The innumerable letters in 
the Morrison Collection from the Bishop to the Hamiltons 
subsequent to the marriage show that the old friendship con- 
tinued to be of the warmest kind, and, as will be seen, he was 
frequently in their society at Naples and Caserta in after years. 

The first of the two letters from the Bishop was written from 
Ireland on his hearing of Hamilton’s arrival in England. It 
contains no mention of Emma. Hamilton had brought with 
him from Italy his beautiful mistress who had lived under his 
protection in Naples for some six years—ever since she had 
been handed over to him by his nephew Greville. As during 
those years Emma had behaved with propriety and fidelity 
to Hamilton, he, after some deliberation, determined to make 
her his wife. 


* “ Nelson’s Legacy,’ by ‘‘ Frank Danby,’’ pages 204-205. 


426 The Earl Bishop 


The Bishop wrote from “ Ballyscullion, May 25, 1791”’ 
(‘‘ The Nelson Papers,’’ Morrison Collection, Vol. I., number 


194): 


‘““My DEAR SCHOOLFELLOW, 3 

‘‘ Nothing shall ever excuse you either to my head or 
heart if you play me truant. I count so much upon your 
passing the Irish Channel if you come to Wales, and I would 
even send a warrant for you if I thought it would bring you. 
A month or two will repair you for the fatigue of yr journey. 
You shall have musick every day, or no day ; you shall see the 
Giant’s Causeway by sea & by land ; you shall see extinguished 
volcanos, & almost burning ones, you shall have grouse shooting 
or not, as you please ; you shall fish on salt water or fresh, just 
as you like best. I will meet you where you please, and bring 
you to the most romantick, & perhaps the most sublime scenery 
you ever saw. Only come, and do not disappoint yr old friend 
and Schoolfellow.”’ 


Hamilton, however, did not go to Ireland. He remained 
in England till his marriage, which took place towards the end 
of this year. On hearing of this event, the Bishop wrote to 
Hamilton. (‘‘ The Nelson Papers,” Vol. I., number 200.) 


“ Woodstock, 
“ Dec, 21st ais 


‘TIT congratulate you my old friend from the bottom of my 
heart upon the fortitude you have shown, & the manly part 
you have taken in braving the world, & securing your own 
happiness & elegant enjoyments in defiance of us (it). I was 
for a long time prepared to receive you both, and would have 
been too happy in contributing to unite you, had Lord Aber- 
corn been in Ireland instead of England ; nobody mentions 
your decision but with approbation ; no wonder, provided that 
they have ever seen or heard Lady Hamilton; & now I flatter 
myself you have secured your happiness for life, & will enjoy 
your otium cum dignitate,and take your dignitatem cum amoen- 
tate for the remainder of your days, & I shall claim my old 
cabin at Caserta that I may be a witness of that permanent 
comfort I so often wished you before. As to the Verd—antique 
slabs, I certainly reckon upon them entirely, and have provided 
nothing else in their place.* Messrs. Heygelin will advance the 


* Supplied by Hamilton and bought by the Bishop for Downhill or Ballyscullion. 
Hamilton made a profitable traffic in such things. 


The Earl Bishop 427 


money. What becomes of Skawronski* on the death of Potem- 
kin? I pity her sincerely. Direct to me in St. James’s Square, 
London, & write soon. Adieu most cordially yours &c. B.”’ 


The Bishop had by this time left Ireland never to return. 
Probably it was far from his intention to bid final farewell 
to the land of his adoption; but, however “loudly” “ the 
duties of an extensive and opulent prelacy ’ may have “ sum- 
moned to residence” a year before, his insatiable appetite 
for travel now summoned this singular prelate still more loudly. 
His bad health was his excuse, and a frequent change of scene 
seems to have been needed to exhilarate his spirits, which grew 
more uneven and more restless with advancing years. 

Crossing from the North of Ireland to Scotland early in 
the autumn of 1791, the Bishop was detained at Annan by a 
serious attack of gout. So alarming was his condition that he 
made his will, as appears from the following letter to Henry 
Hervey Bruce, who was now left in charge of the Bishop’s 
Irish affairs—a position which he filled during the next twelve 
years with complete satisfaction to the Bishop and credit to 
himself. This letter, in the possession of Sir Hervey Bruce, 
Bart., at Downhill, contains news of great import to Bruce, 
affecting his prospects, and is dated Annan, October 5, 1791 : 


“I have your letter of the 30th, my dear Harry this very 
moment, & am glad to hear that dearest Letitia continues so 
well in spight of her size & rejoice that you had spirit enough 
to remove her from so melancholy a scene as Mary’s illness 
must have made Banbrook. If when I reach Bath those waters 
should be judged beneficial to her my house there will always 
have a room for her & whoever she brings with her. I con- 
gratulate you on yr legacy & the whole family upon the extinc- 
tion of a poor Man who was a burthen to himself and to others. 

“If I acquire strength ’tis very slowly, & the gout wch at 
present is in both my feet scarce allows me to walk, & the 
bed is too debilitating to be confined to it. My Physician is 
a man of Ingenuity & tenderness, visits me twice a week from 
Dumfries & remains wth me about a day & an half; his con- 
versation is the best medicine he gives me. Now for business 
—upon my arrival here & finding my strength greatly declined 

* Countess Scawronski was the niece of Prince Potemkin, the all-powerful favourite 
of Catherine II. She was the wife of the Russian Ambassador at Naples. Madame 
Lebrun, who painted her portrait there, describes her as of enchanting beauty and angelic 
sweetness, but so indolent that her only happiness was to recline on a sofa indifferent to 
the beautiful dresses her mother sent her from Paris and the enormous diamond Potemkin 


gave her. To send her to sleep she made a slave, whom she kept under her bed, recite 
the same story to her every night. 


428 The Earl Bishop 


I made a new will wch I gave to Thomas Booth to deliver to you 
in case of my death, which [I still think not very remote —in it 
I have left to you all my Property in Ireland of every denomina- 
tion whatever—part of it eventual, such as the leases of Dunboe, 
Grangebeg, Kilcranahan & the town parks about Derry, & part 
of it Immediately such as the leases of Ardbra, Ballyscullion, 
Banagher, Donaghkiddy, Drimrah or Omagh & the two leases 
in Magilligan—together with all furniture, plate, Pictures, 
Statues, Busts, Books &c. &c. The first leases are held in 
trust by Sr Charles Davers and should be renewed immediately 
—the others are also held in trust by Soden, Mr. Gage, Mr. 
Galbraith, & if I mistake not by Lord Erne. 

“But none of them have yet made a Declaration of Trust, 
which might involve you in great difficulties.—The first thing 
then to be done is to get a Declaration of Trust from all those 
gentlemen—Mr. Jones’s Declaration of Trust for the lease of 
Drumrah is in my possession, but Galbraith shd draw up one 
for each of the other leases—you will find Galbraith very dila- 
tory in such matters—but that is a reason the more for sticking 
to him—or getting some other attorney to do it—the Seques- 
tration of Soden’s parish is not yet perfected, by which you may 
lose £g00 if I should die previously—I never could bring Gal- 
braith to conclude the business tho’ I saw the Instrument all 
but perfected—if the leases were fill’d up, you may send Robert 
Dallas wth them to Liverpool, where he will find me in about a 
fortnight—at all events write to me at Mr. John Brown’s Liver- 
pool—but your answer to this may be directed to Annan, 
where I shall certainly remain at least one week longer—you 
have done very right about the trees—& very kindly about the 
roof of my house—I hope this will reach you time enough to . 
stop Masterson’s bill of £200 as I know of no possibility of such 
a Bull existing—Balfour has been paid every Article without 
Doors to the day of my departure from Mr. McGhee’s—Mr. 
Ch: Hill pays only the Artists within Doors & any bill of his 
should be sent to Mr. Sandys, who computes the Charges at 
the House at £20 per week exclusive of Bellaghy Castle. I 
advise you to endeavour to see & consult wth him & write 
me soon. Adieu, I am jaded, my best love to Letitia.” (A 
letter written by the Bishop from Annan the following day 
(October 6, 1791) and addressed to the Rev. Mr. Bruce, Black- 
heath, Coleraine, is given in our Appendix.) 


The will which the Bishop made at this time at Annan 
was proved on his death twelve years later and 1s now at Somer- 
set House, together with acodicil which he added to it at Aosta 


The Earl Bishop 429 


in 1794. As regards the contents of the will we will onl 
note here that he mentions in it his “‘ affectionate & dutifull 
daughter Louisa” and his “ undutifull and ungratefull son 
Frederick ”’ to whom he leaves only £1,000. He commends his 
chaplain, Mr. Lovell, the companion of his travels, ‘‘ to the 
kindness and protection of Lord Hervey,’ to whom he leaves 
nothing, Lord Hervey being the heir of the settled estates in 
England. 

What had been the cause of Frederick’s offending does 
not clearly appear. Born in 1769, the quondam boy-Colonel 
of Irish Volunteers was now aged twenty-two. Educated at St. 
John’s College, Cambridge, he had distinguished himself when 
he was eighteen by passing all his examinations “ with such 
wonderful credit and éclat ” (wrote his mother) “‘ that he was 
declared first of his year in every subject.” Great expectations 
were then formed for his future. 

It appears that his father was bent on his going with a tutor 
to Holland. His mother,* however, strongly opposing the plan 
on account of the dangerous insurrections which occurred in 
that country in the summer of 1787, succeeded ‘n preventing 
his going there ; and it seems likely that the Bishop was angry 
in consequence. Whatever was the cause, the B’shop and 
Frederick were on bad terms in 1791, and we shall see that two 
years later no reconciliation had taken place. 

When the Bishop had recovered from his illness at Annan 
sufficiently to travel, he proceeded southward, and is next found 
at Blenheim. From thence he dated the following letter to 
Bruce : 

‘“ Blenheim, 
D5 Dec ere 

“ My DEAR Harry, yr letter of 17 Oct. being directed to 
Annan did not reach me till this morning as I had interdicted 
all Irish letters during the weak state of my nerves, but having 
gained some strength by the respite I am now determined to 
try it. Pray tell that worthy fellow Langford Heyland that if 
he could contrive to be at Bath before he goes abroad, I might 
contrive to meet him & settle his route, nay perhaps accompany 
him for some miles. If Galbraith sent the Leases to St. James’s 
Square, I have heard nothing about them but shall immediately 
inquire ; sign, seal, & remit them. As you are so deeply inter- 

* Lady Bristol wrote to Lady Erne, June, 1787: “I am alarm’d at yr Father’s per- 
severance about sending him to Holland during ye troubles there. Alexander (Frederick’s 
tutor) has just had his orders confirmed, but I must suppose yr Father ignorant of the state 
of things, and I have insisted on his not going till I can furnish him with a remonstrance, 


for which purpose I have this moment wrote to Lord Carmarthen to beg I may see him 
and talk about it.” 


OL, iT. ye 


430 The Earl Bishop 


ested in the Trust, you will do well to see with your own eyes 
the Declaration of Trust executed by each. Mr. Gouldsbury’s 
objection to You being the Universal Trustee was a very solid 
one as you are appointed to set the seal & could not renew to 
yrself ; but then he might be appointed by a short Instrument ~ 
transmitted to Me to set the Seal, & you become for your own 
safety The Trustee General—or if you like it as well, He may 
become the Trustee General except where Sr. Ch: Davers is 
appointed, & you continue to fix the Seal, wh at present seems 
to be the more plain & simple method—but at all events, my 
dear Harry, compel him to pass his accounts half-yearly—tor 
he is a slovenly accountant poor fellow & hates it, & neglects 
it—one method will be effectual & That I strongly recommend not 
to Sea’ or Sign any leases whatever, until he has transmitted 
to you a Duplicate of his accounts of the renewals. The Arch- 
deacon’s (Soden) accounts are finally settled, & Galbraith has — 
received a draft from me for the amount of his own charges. © 
[only lament that I didnot JOIN YOU inthe letter of attorney 
for examining & passing Mr. Soden’s accounts, you wd then have 
seen with your own eyes how I had been treated, & how slow to 
anger & how ready to forgive I have been on Thai as well as 
MANY OTHER occasions. I long to hear the issue of your 
Aunt’s Bequest to you at Litchfield as I hear from all quarters 
that Her property was immense & that she undoubtedly left 
allher NEPOTISM except Hervey Aston of Aston Hall residuary 
legatee—adieu dear Harry my best love to dearest Letitia & to 
Stewart, most affectionately yours, B. Be sure you send me 
all the News ecclesiastical, Civil & neighbourly that you can, © 
& do not deem any trifling or indifferent to one as much interested — 
about Ireland as I am. 

‘““My dearest Letitia I have just open’d Harry’s letter to 
thank you for yr delicious one of November 5th wch arrived 
at the same time—continue to me my dear Child from time 
to time such memorandums of your affection & continue to © 
make me happy by assuring me that you are so, wch you well 
know has long been the object the wish & pursuit of yr affec- 
tionate BRISTOL.” 


CHAPTER XLIV 


1792 


()* leaving Blenheim, where he was perhaps the guest of 

the Duke of Marlborough, the Bishop moved to Wood- 
stock whence he wrote the letter to Sir William Hamilton 
already quoted. Thence passing through Bath he went to 
Plymouth, where he spent the winter on account of the mildness 
of the climate. The following succession of letters addressed 
to Lady Erne were written by the Bishop at this time: 


‘“ Plymouth, 
20 an Eden 

My DEAREST Mary amid the Chaos of letters wch surround 
& almost confound me I have only a moment to say that, if 
your husband will not allow you a Coach in London, your 
Father will—& tho’ I never was more pinch’d for money, yet 
I beg you would do the thing handsomely & not only have the 
comfort of going in your coach but also The pleasure of being 
drawn by pretty horses—& I will pay you either monthly or 
at the end of the season as you like best—Adieu my dear child 
—I really have not a minute to spare, nor a brain to resist such 
incessant calls upon it—I will write next post to dear Lady 
Hervey, or to dearer Lou, yrs. BB.” ~ 


“Falmouth, 
pS AID Ka) 9 PF yg asd) 
~ Don’t imagine my dearest Mary—or rather you did quite 
right in not imagining—that I would strain at a gnat after 
swallowing a Camel—so that the Livery was only an Act of 
Umformity for the better celebrating yr Ladyship’s exercise 
wth the Coach & horses—but I hope my dear that you are not 
imposed upon in the monthly price, for unless my memory 
greatly fails me I paid but £12 a month for my horses in 1782 
—I don’t grudge you the benefit of my money, shd only grudge 
VOL, II. 431 a* 


432 The Earl Bishop 


to others the Plunder—aAt all events it gives me as much pleasure 
at least as it does you to think you will pass the winter so com- 
fortably & owe that comfort to me—Can you tell me whether 
it is Sr Wm. or Sr Joshua Rowley who lives at Tendering Hall, 
or some such Hall near Polstead, & what his Post town is? 
I have a favor to beg of him, relative to an Estate of £3000 a 
year he holds in my Diocese, & ’tis whimsical enough but I 
cannot ascertain his direction—but ’tis equally whimsical his 
landlords ‘The worshipful Company of Drapers’ in the city 
of London have in the most obliging & flattering manner given 
me unanimously {100 towards building a steeple & spire at 
Ballynascreen, so that before the end of the year I hope to have 
4 or even 5 spires in the sight of Ballyscullion built chiefl 
at the expense of other People to beautify my prospect. A 
propos dear Mary if you ever write to Lady Londonderry, press 
her to recommend my spire at Magherafelt to her husband 
who has the chief property in the Parish—she reproach’d me in 
a letter some time since wth not having solicited her influence 
—the Church is directly in front of my best Rooms about 3 
miles distant, & if the spire is made an handsome one will 
greatly enliven my Prospect—put it home to her—she is much 
inclin’d & will do the business if she can. 

“In spite of your coach, remember how very necessary 
exercise & open air is to a child of Caroline’s age & sex—that 
movement, movement, is above all things essential to the human 


frame, wch for want of it must be loaded with obstructions, © 


bad secretions, redundant bile, & the inevitable consequences of 
all, bad humour, discontent, pining &c. &c. 

“A National Bankruptcy I take to be the only measure that 
can save that nation of Baboons—they tried it in the time of 


the Regency & succeeded—no doubt but they will do the same 


now— 

“Poor dear Mrs. Greene (unmarried sister of the late Lady 
Davers). I fancy the candle is in the socket, & all Dr. Norford’s 
art & skill cannot that light relume. I am delighted at her 
generosity about the lottery ticket—et je la reconnais a ce 
trait—adieu my dear child—direct ye next to Plymouth Dock, 
‘tis the best air I have felt yet in the west.” 


The following undated letter from the Bishop to Lady Erne — 


seems to have been written in February, 1792 : 


‘““ DEAREST Mary when a person is hard run, a small supply © 
is yet a great relief, & as yr finances are very nicely calculated, — 
the above draft for a score of Oratorios in the approaching © 


The Earl Bishop 438 


Lent may not be unseasonable—but indeed I should not have 
thought of it, I fear, amidst all the busy nonsense that now assails 
my brain from many quarters, but for poor Lou's writing that 
the loss of her opera made her quite capotte—this immediately 
brought your love of musick into my head or into my heart, & 
away I wrote the above draft, wch I fancy you will have scarcely 
more pleasure in receiving that I in writing, & so good night and 
let me know how you like the first Oratorio, or Opera or what- 
ever it is that I have the good fortune to give you.” 


The next letter is addressed from Plymouth, 3rd March, 
1792, to the Countess of Erne, in Bruton Street : 


‘““T have yr letters my dear Mary & am delighted to find 
how much pleasure my dirty ten guineas for plays or Operas 
can possibly have given you—indeed it struck me as very 
hard to give sweet Louisa her opera ticket to prevent her 
having quite Capotte at a time of life when scarce anything 
can make one capotte, & not indulge you with a few Operas 
at an Epoch when almost everything can make one capotte 
—so away I went & sent you a score of Operas which if you 
can convert into two score of plays—tant mieux—cela ne 
gAtera Rien. I am now busy, who would think it ? in pro- 
curing lodging diet & accommodation for two miserable French 
Exiles whom I met at St. Austell’s in Cornwall—one is certainly 
a Bishop—the other I conclude his Grand Vicaire—When you 
are quite at leisure I wish you would send for Chevalier & ask 
him if he could not procure for those two exiles—one Room 
with two beds up two pairs of stairs in the neighbourhood of 
some good cook-shops where a man may fill his belly without 
much emptying his Purse. I remember when I was at the 
Temple we din’d at an excellent Coffee house in St. Martin’s 
Lane for one shilling per head—but since that, I know there are 
cook-shops, & I dare say General Hervey, who rambles every- 
where & knows every thing, could lead my two friends, french 
ecclesiasticks, to some of those Cook-shops in the Alleys near 
St. Martin’s Lane where a man fills his belly for 4d. or 6d. & 
with two pence more dilutes the whole wth good beer—dear 
Mary! if you are yr Father’s own daughter, & I doubt it not, 
help me extricate these poor exiles, all french that they are, 
from their present distress. William can certainly relieve them 
& surely has the heart to do so. For my part je déteste la 
France—mais quelque fois j’aime—Non—je plains les Frang¢ois 
—don’t give yourself any trouble about them that can fatigue 
or distress you, for I can write to somebody else—but if you find 


434 The Earl Bishop 


that a work of humanity enlivens without too much exerting 
you, proceed, and let me know the result. 

‘““ Poor Thomas (Thomas Booth, his servant, witnessed his 
will in Sept. 1791) is this day dismiss’d—his fourberies became 
too frequent & too glaring—he was like a Tyger that had tasted — 
blood, & sucked it a grosses gofites—cela me dérange un peu, 
& fait plus d’impression sur le moral que sur le physique—what 
an infatuation for a man who had every enjoyment & every 
prospect that human nature could desire—I am now without 
a single servant of confidence—I, who am made for Confidence 
—born confident, & who wish to trust & be trusted—I am de- 
lighted to see the spirits in which you write & still flatter myself 
that they arise from the consciousness of owing yr happyness 
to None but those who owed to you—adieu dear Mary—What 
does Lady Hervey ?’’* 


“ Plymouth Dock, 
“4th March, ’92. 


‘““T am delighted my dearest Mary at the servant you have 
procur’d me & only hope I shall not spoil him by my Prévention | 
in favor of a protégé of yours: but I am still more delighted 
to find yr health & yr spirits so much the better for my antidote 
to yr husband’s poison—the giving you so reasonable conveni- 
ence in spite of him gives a zest to that good dish—a coach well 
garnished with a pretty pair of horses that makes your cook 
quite happy. 

“Je suis enchanté que vous vous étes tirée d’affaire si bien a 
York House, or the House of Yorks, & je reconnois votre Esprit 
Philosophique & Anticoquette a chaque pas de la vis; ’tis a 
pity you should not be happy, so well do you deserve to be so, 
& so easily might one make you so. Poor Thomas Booth’s 
ingratitude, Perfidy, & almost villany are unaccountable ; 
the Devil must have a much greater sway in this world than we 
imagine ; for this poor man had no temptation to be dishonest, 
& has been cheating me I fear for years past : but he who sells 
himself to a Brimstone of a wife for an imaginary & an eventual 
£200 might well sell me to every innkeeper & every Publican he 
met—TI hope yr protégé brings his testimonials with him, & if 
you ever see Lord Hopeton, pray give him my affectionate 
compts & say I never forget some comfortable social hours 
I used to pass with him near 30 years ago. Here we are amidst 
the mildest rains that can sprinkle us—but rain as it is, there 
is no damp from it—I wonder from what fleecy cloud it is dis- 


* His daughter-in-law, who lived much with her own family. 





The Earl Bishop 435 


till’d, for I am sitting wth my window open & scarcely a spark 
in my chimney. 

‘What books appear this year I like,—‘The Loves of the 
Plants’ immoderately, & think Townshend’s travels thro’ Spain 
not unentertaining—Has Whitaker’s defense of Mary Queen of 
Scots* (come out ?) the beautiful & as he says ‘the Vertuous, the 
chaste Mary ’—believe it who can ?—a Princess born in 
Edinburg & educated in Paris—chaste! & vertuous— tis 
Hypocrisy against the Devil—I am delighted at poor Lady 
Duncannon’s progress & prospectt—yet I once thought—had 
he been a Widower t—m’avete Capito—or Capisce Lei—Signora ? 
Adieu dearest Mary, I have still forgot to bid you not send your 
letters so formally—yet ‘ ever yr affectionate child’ or Daugh- 
ter are words that gladden my eyes—and the space where they 
used to be and should no longer appear would be an insufferable 
Blank to him who is truly yr ever affectionate Father—tell 
that sweet Pug, Lou, I will send her the draft for her Old Opera, 
when I have despatched the Ninety three letters I found here 
at the one miraculous draught.—What a coquette is this Ply- 
mouth sound to me—here am I flirting with it perpetually— 
& not one single John Dory to be caught—nor even a Red 
mullet. What say you or yr intelligent friend to The Poly- 
graphica—is a Claude Lorraine worth sending to me ! Je m’en 
rapporte a vos beaux yeux. 

‘Pray mention dearest Lady Mary (his sister, Lady Mary 
Fitzgerald) in yr next—& yr next after that, & whenever you 
can—I would not wish the servant to set out untill I reach 
Exeter but you may hire him on receipt of this—but specify 
to him not to bring much Baggage, as I am still one of The Light 
Cavalry.” 


“ Dock, 
“20 March, 1792. 


‘“Commission on Commission, my dearest Mary, yet do not 
be alarm’d—it shall not cost you a step nor scarce a word or a 
look—but I have set my heart upon two pictures to be sold at 
Christie’s in Pall Mall on Saturday the 24th which I actually 
did buy in my last séjour at Rome, & was jockey’d from by the 
Vendor pretending after 3 days receipt of my money that he 
meant Pounds sterling and not zecchins—eh che differenza, 
Mia Cara ! 


* John Whitaker (1735-1808). In his “‘ Mary Queen of Scots Vindicated TNE 7S7 ae 
went beyond all previous writers in defending the Queen and incriminating her enemies. 
Whitaker was a friend of the Bishop. 

t Lady Duncannon, wée Spencer, afterwards Countess of Bessborough. 

+t Some insinuation of Lord Duncannon having courted Lady Erne. 


436 The Earl Bishop 


“ Were I rich at this moment, I would fly at higher game— 
but [I shall not ruin myself if, in case my brother William has 
not time to bid for me, you just take Chevalier to see No. 86 & 
87, or No. 102. They are all three Portraits & I will not give 
more than fourteen or at most 15 guineas for each which is 
exactly the price I gave for them at Rome.* No one isa more 
critical judge than General Hervey, if he will undertake it— 
but even poor Chevalier cannot blunder here if he does not 
exceed his commission. 

‘“—think what a lucky man is Ld. Camelford—he has 
just bought 3 Claudes at one stroke—my own collection is 
forming from Cimabue thro’ Rafael & delicious Guido down to 
Pompeio Battoni, the last of the Italian School._—& in Germany 
from Albert Durer’s Master down to Angelica.—but I have 
no good Rafael, nor any satisfactory Guido, but a Correggio 
that is invaluable & two Claudes, sold to me by that Liberal 
Gentlemanlike excellent man Mr. Henry Hope of Amster- 
dam. 

“ As to my Servant, dear Mary, do not make yr self uneasy 
about him or me—perhaps he may yet come, or has received 
from this family some intelligence that has deterr’d—for about 
that time, Thos. Booth who had loiter’d here some days set out 
for London—in the mean time one of the Innkeepers 30 miles 
off who had join’d in cheating me, yielded to his conscience & 
made full restoration, unasked, of the money—but the great 
peculator is obdurate—ten to one Mary, upon the Arsenick 
and upon that french Catiline the Duke of O. (Orléans ‘ Egal- 
ité’) for administering it—didn’t they hoot him out of the 
Thuilleries not long ago wth Poison !—du Poison! & didn’t he 
run like a Forcené into the first coach he met—Tiberius’s Reign 
is return’d—thank God we are free for a little sparring or libel- 
ling—such as This Jockey Club—but what an ass must the author 
be to endeavour to persuade the publick that William Pitt is 
no minister & only a clerk in Office who understands pounds 
shillings & pence & no more—do you guess at the Author? I 
do shrewdly & make him one & the same with the Epistle to Sr 


* Messrs. Christie, Manson and Woods have been so good as to look in their catalogue 

for March 24th, 1792, and send me the following information : 

Cav. Tinelli. 86. A Portrait—of wonderful effect and strength of colour, in 

which this scarce and famous artist excelled. 
Realised 18 gns. purchased by Nixon. 
Schiavone. 87. Venus and Adonis. 
, Realised 194 gns. purchased by Nixon. 

Capuchin Genoese. 102. Portrait of a Doge of the Raggi family—this picture so 
remarkable for execution and effect, was purchased of the 
heirs of the above family. 

Realised 33 gns. purchased by White. 


The Earl Bishop 487 


Wm. Chambers.* I have lately been reading a sermon of his 
on the Slave-trade, & nothing but being a slave to an Egyptian 
task-master could make me drudge thro’ a second of the same 
author’s, & I think I am sure of the style—add to that, all the 
antiquated zeal for a reform of Parliament which no Minister 
in England can atchieve, & which only 14 Counties out of 52 
ever petitioned for, so the presumption was the majority of the 
kingdom did not desire it.—whereas in Ireland when we moved 
it, every County and almost every city petitioned—and sooner 
or later it must be obtained. 

‘What think you of our Western climate when I tell you 
we are this day going to eat Mackerel, but I fear no green goose- 
berries—adieu I have now 25 letters on my table gaping for 
answers—I had rather have some of Hercules’s labours than my 
quotidian one—adieu dear Mary.” 


Next in sequence comes a lettert addressed to Wilmot 
Vaughan, first Earl of Lisburne,t whose influence the Bishop 
solicits with regard to a matter affecting his property in Lin- 
colnshire. 


“ Plymouth, 
‘ 24th March, 1792. 

‘““My DEAR OLD FRIEND, I little expected ever to trouble 
you upon Parliamentary business, but an event has happened 
which renders it inevitable, and I am certain you will not deny 
me your own assistance & that of your friends as far as you can 
with propriety grant it. A Bill now hes before your House 
(the English House of Commons, where Irish peers had the 
right of sitting before the Union) for a navigation through my 
town of Sleaford in Lincolnshire. I am informed that an un- 
expected opposition has arisen to it from the famous Mrs. 
Nesbit, Mistress to the late Earl of Bristol, who left her an 
estate for life in the vicinage of Sleaford. 

“IT know nothing of the merits of our cause, but that will 
instantly raise my rents in that parish, which is all my own, 
above £1200 a year. There are 1200 powerful arguments with 
me and I am certain will weigh with you in the scale of friend- 
ship, if nothing very powerful occurs against it. 

“°Tis true our adversary has many a. standing counsel to 
whom she occasionally gives a retaining fee, but I rely on Sr 


* The Author of the “‘ Epistle to Sir W. Chambers ”’ was the Bishop’s old friend (or 
enemy), the Rev. William Mann (or Mason), the correspondent of Gray. 

+ Add. MSS. in the British Museum. 

+ The fourth Viscount Lisburne was created an Earl in 1776 and died in 1800. 






438 The Earl Bishop 
Joseph Banks, who has a deep stake as well as myself, & con- | 
ducts the business like an old Marshall de France avec le tour — 
du baton. Adieu my dear Lord, I am certain my friend the © 
General who never deserted his colors will not desert those of — 
friendship. Ever most affectionately yours BRISTOL.”’ 


The Bishop writes to Lady Erne : 
26th. March aga: 


‘A thousand thanks to you my dear Mary for all yr trouble 
& sollicitude about my pictures—If they are truely sold they 
are certainly gone for more than they were worth. 

“T am delighted to hear dear little or Great Lal Lal has ~ 
resum’d her drawing under good auspices—giochiamo dunque ? _ 
.. . but think of Flaxman, the modern Michael Angelo—he has ~ 
had the courage to undertake, & the good fortune to have a © 
Patron to bespeak, a restoration of the Torso in Belvedere. Mr. — 
Dankerville has prov’d to the satisfaction of all connoisseurs that _ 
this Torso or Dorso was a sitting Hercules with his wife Hebe 
beside him as described by Homer in his Odyssey—Flaxman 
has made a model of it in Clay with Hebe by his side—Ld. 
Camelford writes me word that Michael Angelo might have 
been afraid to undertake it, & that Flaxman has succeeded. ~ 
—young Mr. Hope of Amsterdam has bespoke it, & to Ld. © 
Camelford’s great grief sends it to Holland. How happens it ~ 
that you never mentioned Seringapatam—especially as poor Ld. ~ 
Cornwallis is wounded ? Where were you and Louisa—play 
—opera ? where? & not one Evening paper made the least © 
mention of it. n 

‘After Thursday direct yr dear letters to the Post Office © 
Wellington—for I fear I must leave this delightful air—The — 
Abbé wants to get home. Adieu adieu——’”’ 


‘“ Plymouth, 
“ 30th March, 1792. 


‘‘ Tomorrow I leave this my dear Mary with very great regret — 
—-but my poor fugitives seem impatient to be at home & can ~ 
not receive one sixpence of their small income at Honfleur till 
they reach it— 

‘““My logick upon the East India news was always in favor 
of yr silence—no letters—no victory & I agree perfectly with you 
my dear child that Seringapatam would be dearly bought by ~ 
the loss of so honest a man & so able an officer as Ld. Corn. 
—yr letters must be addressed to Wellington Somersetshire where | 
the air is excellent, my acquaintance form’d—my books numer- 
ous and from whence if my fugitives continue impatient and will | 





The Earl Bishop 439 


wait untill the Tail of the Equinox is passed, I can dispatch them 
to Brighton. 

“ Thither too, if you please, you may send my servant upon 
Easter Monday—tor as I conclude he is a Pafist, we need at 
least have no communion together on Sunday—but sweetest 
Mary, why no answer from you nor Louisa nor Lady Hervey 
about my Sleaford navigation bill ?—did you never receive my 
letter—or did you think it a joke—it was near being a very 
serious affair, had not Sr. Joseph Banks interested himself 
warmly & ably in it—it was a dear good-natur’d thing of you 
to call upon old Flaxman & tell him the good fortune of his son, 
who will probably rise to be the first Sculptor in Europe— 
exquisite Canova not excepted.—by the by do you guess what 
this same Canova is doing for me? I do not, but he swears it 
shall be his Masterpiece & that I may have it or not as I please 
—Only think of Berger & his Wife—she has wrote me a Philip- 
pick full of such scurrility as yr Burkes, Sheridans &c. vent in 
their wrath—-& why ? because after six years I discontinue the 
Husband’s pension for which I have received just 3 pictures— 
‘Oh! I have taken Too, Too much care of such.’ (Jacques 
Berger, the celebrated French landscape-painter, whom the 
Bishop had rescued from extreme poverty in 1786.) 

‘“My Scotch friends have serv’d me wonderfully in the 
Sleaford navigation, & so has the Bishop of Landaff, yet I 
know not still whether it be lost or not. Sr J. Banks has pro- 
mis’d to inform me—adieu ever affectionately yrs. B. 

“IT am delighted to hear of Lady Caroline’s success, Lady 
Londonderry in a letter of today speaks in raptures of her.”’ 


The Bishop made two excursions to visit the erudite John 
Whitaker at his Rectory, Ruan Langhorn, Cornwall, the first 
in March, the second in April. Whitaker besides being 
a writer in defence of Mary Queen of Scots’ reputation (which 
the Bishop held lightly) was eminent as a Greek scholar, 
and in consequence was esteemed and sought by the Bishop. In 
a letter to his friend Polwhele, dated May, 1792, Whitaker says: 

“We have had a singular character with us, the Bishop 
of Derry. He is ingenious, lively, and a man of great taste in 
sculpture, painting & architecture. He came and took a bed 
here, then went to Plymouth Dock, returned two or three weeks 
afterwards & came professedly to spend two days in talking 
Greek with me. I have been devouring Polybius these three 
days, he said in his premonitory letter, & I want to chew the 
cud with you.” (“‘ Polwhele’s Traditions and Recollections,” 


page 287.) 


4.4.0 The Earl Bishop 


It would seem that during one of these visits Whitaker 
thought it incumbent on him to reprove his episcopal guest 
for some unseemly levity in conversation, which was presumably 
not wholly confined to Greek. 

Polwhele, after Whitaker’s death, recalling his strict prin- 
ciples and his intolerance of anything approaching profaneness 
or scepticism, mentions as an instance of this that on one occa- 
sion he had even “‘ rebuked the Bishop of Derry” and “ had 
smitten his lordship (too light in talk) upon the knee.” (Ibid., 
page 615.) 

Passing through Somersetshire on his way from Plymouth 
to London in April, the Bishop seems to have halted at Welling- 
ton, near where lived another learned friend of his, Clarke, to 
whom he is known to have written many letters. These are 
believed to be now in the possession of Colonel Sanford at 
Nynehead Court, where the late Lord Arthur Hervey, Bishop of 
Bath and Wells, saw them many years ago. 

The Bishop is next to be traced on his arrival in London 
at his house in St. James’s Square, where he arrived in April, 
1792. There he was laid up with gout for many weeks and 
amused himself by reading in bed. 

From here he wrote to Lady Erne : 

“5th May, ’92. 

“T have been immoderately entertained, my dearest Mary, 
and during the 4th & 5th Act convuls’d with fits of laughter, in 
reading The Sentimental Mother, a comedy in 5 Acts the legacy 
of an old friend to Mrs. Hester Lynch Thrale, now Mrs. H. L. 
Piozzi—c’est de la main d’un maitre, & I wish you cd find out 
for me who that Maitre is*—I suspect our friend Greathead— 
il en est capable 4 tous Egards—& has spoke daggers to her— 
but us’d none. 

“Two more very recent performances have engrossed me 
much & been read with the greatest avidity, just as if I was 
still a boy at College, wth the same interest & the same enthu- 
siasm—a description of the Plain of Troy & all the important 
objects it still contains by a Monsr. Chevalier,+ & translated by 
Dr. Dalzel wch I think might interest Caroline—I beg to present 
it to her with another Book or Books that yr Purse cannot or 
yr husband’s will not afford. 

“The other is of a very superior merit, but I fear in spite of 

* In the “ Life and Writings of Mr. Piozzi”’ (A. Hayward), 1861, illustrated, internal 
evidence leads almost inevitably to the conclusion that Baretti was the author of ‘‘ The 
Sentimental Mother ”’ (printed in 1789). The play, without any disguise, gives the story 


of the Thrale household, husband, wife, two daughters and ‘“ Signor Squalici ’’—the 
nickname of Piozzi, Mrs. Thrale’s second husband. 


+ J. B. Le Chevalier, ‘‘ Description of the Plains of Troy,” translated 1791. 


The Earl Bishop 441 


its beautiful poetry too profound to engage even your attention 
—‘ The Botanick Garden,’* a Poem in two parts, the second 
part was publish’d just about 2 years & was known by its Title, 
‘The Loves of Plants,’ selon moi c’est du premier Mérite & he 
has united the Philosophy of Sr Isaac wth the Poetry of Mr. 
Pope—but still I fear it is beyond you—especially in London 
Town. 

“Pray name it to Lady Dumfriest & beg she will read it 
for my sake—there is honorable mention of Mrs. Damer, Eliza- 
beth, & Dss. Devonshire—for he embraces everything and would 
puzzle Lavater himself for he is from head to foot the counter- 
part of such a London Alderman as Hogarth wd have chosen 
to die of the last oyster—stutters besides—has his tongue too 
large for his mouth—but his head too small for his brain which 
is continually oozing out at his fingers ends, his mouth &c. 

“JT long much to know Ld. Stormont’s opinion of it—who is 
a real Scholar, Philosopher & Statesman, & ought to have 
£20,000 a year to make a Maecenas of him. At last the Sow’, 
Abbé & his maussade niece leave me tomorrow—they have 
been summon’d home in Thunder—wth menaces against his 
Pension, his property & his Person—they will embark at South- 
ampton & I hope land at Dieppe in a few hours—a more triste 
maussade Duo I never saw—totally uneducated, unread, 
unfashion’d & she at the age of 48 has employ’d all this after- 
noon under the hands of a frisseur to prepare her grey head 
for a small straw hat with a green border cloath’d wth a fine 
muslin & pink ribband which the old Hag really deems essential 
to her return into Honfleur—add to this that she is Hump- 
back’d, has at least 12 furrows in her forehead, her teeth of the 
color of tortoiseshell, & ready to drop from her head wth scurvy, 
Kings Evil &c. &c. 

“* And each Vacuity of sense by pride.’ 

‘Vr idea for ascertaining the Property of the Culottes is 
excellent—but I fear not quite conclusive—& yr transcript of 
the P. of Wales’ Toasts & Declaration very acceptable—in this 
Country the Clubs are innumerable & all of the most dangerous 
tendency—I own Mr. Pitt’s politics & mine wth respect to Re- 
form differ greatly—I wd call on Mr. Grey & Doctor Priestly 


* By Erasmus Darwin. 
+ Margaret, wife of Patrick, fifth Earl of Dumfries, and daughter of Ronald Crawford. 


t The allusion is to Pope’s lines : 
‘‘ Meanwhile opinion gilds with varying rays 
Those painted clouds that beautify our days ; 
Each want of happiness by hope supply’d 
And each vacuity of sense by pride.”’ 
(‘Essay on Man,” Ep. II., 283-286.) 


442 The Earl Bishop 


for a specifick system of reform, As an Ultimatum beyond which 
no more was desir’d, & then canvass it fairly, as they do the 


African Slave trade, not as a Ministerial but as a Political — 


measure—for whilst All Reform is precluded by the high hands 
of Power, & so many of the very best Citizens think that some 
is necessary, what can we expect but an explosion like that in 
France, which, had the severity of the Bastille been corrected, the 
abuse of lettres de Cachet been restrain’d, the Nobility and Clergy 
tax’d like other citizens, had probably never happen’d.—The 
Dissenters are becoming every day more numerous, the Clergy 
of the Church of England every day more remiss, more volup- 
tuous, more Abandon’d, more dissipated, less learned & more 
contemptible—where can it end ?—in some great convulsion— 
I pledge myself thai at no remote era—Adieu. Have you seen 
the 2nd Jockey Club—'tis flat & insipid, & betrays Ld. Shel- 
burne’s shop. I am still in bed, day as well as night, but am 
oblig’d to drink wine instead of water, & eat as heartily as if 
I was to procure the Gout & not get rid of it—j’ai fait le Pasde 
L’Eté a ’automne et je le sens bien.”’ 

Next day he wrote to the Right Honble. John Beresford 
the first presented of a series of letters which show that in spite 
of his absence from his diocese he did not cease to take keen 
interest in the erection and adornment of its churches, and in 
the business details connected with these objects.* 


“St. James’s Square, 
“6th May, 1792. 
Liat Re 
“J cannot help recurring to our Church at Bally- 

kelly for which you have been so generous & zealous an advocate. 

‘““We have now a very competent sum subscribed for steeple 
and spire, but unless these sums are called in & lodged at a 
Banker’s, death may deprive us of some of them, & caprice of 
others. 

‘“T propose to you to lodge all the money at Alexander’s 
& Bond’s in Derry subject to your draft on them; that Mr. 
John Mitchel, who will contract for the whole, shall receive his 
payment for the Church in three gales. One-third beforehand, 
one-third when the Church is roofed, one-third when the Church- 
wardens shall certify it fit for Divine Service next year. We 
can divide the steeple and spire in the same manner, if you 
approve it. 

“Would you choose that I should send you drafts upon 


* « Correspondence of the Right Hon. John Beresford ’’ (Vol. II., page 6), son of the 
first Earl of Tyrone. 


The Earl Bishop 448 


those persons who have subscribed to me as well as you? | 
think it will save you trouble, and simplify our proceedings. 


MEOTRIM LVL OTC nna man neta eC fey 30rd baa £40 
BOT Mises van yen menu tery tack aula Gy 50 
Mu Ce WMoCauslandy er eye oles ei ia) 30 
ite evi ccanslan aye ceeds niet ile ook 20 
PAN AS tart AT LCOTN iyey erica) spose acoheve Gy 30 
Rie On VCC AUS ATIC | Tait brett al actpel allt 0) 
The Parish you will manage 
Rees remy eh LAL TVG 7 0 SMM Conc Ady i 5 oe aah LO 
190 
we foied (22 is DAU Baler Rie abe Mean une De usar ae 100 
PEVIPIELL Vics oes atassl anne aival ToRle arash. 20m 100 
ord Bi Chimself) ooo. SY Sree rere 100 
MCA ESOLOSLOLEL si ihe) dette aie. He iia 


“Remember, Mitchel must build at six shillings per perch, 
considering the proximity of stone & lime. I am now eight 
weeks in bed with the gout, & have nothing to do but to build 
steeples & churches & other castles in the air; but ever with 
ereat esteem, your faithful humble servant BRISTOL.” 


* Second Earl of Tyrone, afterwards first Marquis of Waterford, elder brother of Rt. 
Hon. John Beresford. 

+ The Right Hon, Thomas Conolly, married Lady Louisa, daughter of the second Duke 
of Richmond. 

t Rev. Gustavus Hamilton, a grandson of the first Viscount Boyne. His daughter 
married C. McCausland, Esq., of Coleraine. 


CHAPTER XEV 
1792 (continued) 
EFORE going abroad in the summer of 1792 the Earl 


Bishop appears to have paid a short visit to Ickworth 
in the absence of Lady Bristol who, with her daughter Louisa, 


was now sojourning at Ramsgate.* The object of his going 


to Ickworth—it was ten years since he had been there—was 
to make arrangements for the site and building of the present 
great house, which was eventually begun in his absence on a 
model such as, it was said, “only Lord Bristol could have 
designed,’ and which he himself alluded to in later years as 
an “‘impudent house,” while his wife called it a “‘ stupendous 
monument of folly.”” Sostates Arthur Young, writing some years 
after the Bishop’s death (“‘ Autobiography of Arthur Young,” 
pages 104-105). “ This eccentric man,’ he remarks, “ built 
in Ireland a large and very expensive house (Ballyscullion) on a 
plan as singular as himself, and, what was more extraordinary, 
a repetition of it at Ickworth. But the most extraordinary 


* A letter from Lady Bristol to Lady Erne written at Ramsgate at this time must 
find place here. Although it has no bearing on the Bishop’s life and movements, it appears 
of too much interest to be set aside, giving as it does at first hand the story of the Duke of 
Orléans (Egalité)’ s callous behaviour during the horrible scenes enacted in Paris. She 
writes: ‘“‘ Ramsgate, 15th September, 1792 . What do you think of Mr. Lindlay’s 
dining with D. of O. a few days before he left Paris, in short ye day of the Massacre of the 
Prisoners. It open’d a strange scene to him, that is certain, for while they were at dinner, 
there was a great noise in the streets, and upon some apprehension being expressed, the 
D. of O. said: ‘Ah ce n’est rien—c’est la téte de Madame de Lamballe qu’on proméne;’ 
and taking Mr. L. by the arm he carried him to ye windows to see it. Was there ever 
anything so horrible! and does it not seem to prove the connection between him and 
Pétion ? ”’ 

Lady Bristol proceeds to give news of Devonshire House and its inmates, among whom 
her daughter, Lady Elizabeth Foster, had lived in closest intimacy during ten years. In 
allusion to a carriage accident which had befallen Elizabeth with the Duchess of Devon- 
shire and the latter’s sister, Lady Duncannon (afterwards the celebrated Lady Bessborough), 
Lady Bristol writes: “‘ her (Elizabeth’s) fright was owing to the horses having kick’d and 
run away with a carriage down-hill, in which was the Dss. and L. Duncanion, herself 
and two children—it was not overturn’d, but Lady Duncannon was almost in fits with 
fear, and had so bad a return of her spasms that she could not be carried home, and tho’ 
the Duchess shew’d great courage, yet the whole scene was so affecting that her nerves 
were seized in such a manner that Tissot sat with her all night. It was a great while 
before she could be brought to cry.—she was relieved by it—but the P. of Wales follow’d 
with excessive violence—in fact she was very ill with it, wch is no wonder.”’ 


444 


The Earl Bishop 445 


circumstance,” he continues in relation to the new house, 
“ was that he began it while he disliked the spot from the wetness 
of the soil, and would often tell me that he should never be such 
a fool as to build in so wet a situation.’”’ Whatever may have 
been the stricture and criticisms of the Earl Bishop’s family 
and his Suffolk neighbours concerning the new Ickworth when, 
in course of time, they watched the building during his absence, 
it must be admitted that it was designed on a grand scale ; and, 
if its exterior may excite greater surprise than admiration, its 
interior with its curving corridors of stately and magnificent 
proportions is extremely striking, while it displays the fine 
‘collection of ancestral portraits which adorns its walls ; although 
it never became the great treasure-house of the Bishop’s latest 
collections which he at one time intended it should be. 

Moreover, there was much to be said in favour of building 
a mansion at Ickworth suitable in scale and dignity to be the 
residence of the head of the family ; for the home which the first 
Earl had constructed out of an old farm-house was intended 
by him to be merely a temporary residence until such time as a 
new one should be built. 

But the completion of the modern edifice, the Bishop, who, 
throughout his remaining eleven years, took a keen interest 
in its construction, was himself destined never to see. Before 
the autumn of 1792 he had started for the Continent, and re- 
mained abroad for the rest of his life. 

Accompanied by his chaplain, the Rev. Trefusis Lovell, 
he set forth bound for Italy ; but the only safe route thither lay 
through Germany ; for massacre and pillage were now raging 
in France. We find him lingering in Germany for more than 
a year, being well received and féted wherever he went. Pyr- 
mont seems to have been for some time his headquarters from 
which he made excursions hither and thither. The following 
letter to Lady Erne* shows him at Cassel, October 9, 1792. 
“Think of my bad fortune, dearest Mary, 32 letters left this 
place for Pyrmont on the very day that I arriv’d here, so that 
I have to wait the end of the week before they can return— 
& ’tis now a month since I have had a scrap of paper from any 
of ye—in the meantime Pyrmont has done me all the good I 
expected, and the journey a great deal more, so that I want 
nothing but to perpetuate the health & spirits enjoy. Most of 
my acquaintances say that I am ‘ Rajeuni’ & others  ‘ que 
vous avez my Lord un Singulier de Jeunesse pour votre Age’; 
nothing tires, nothing ennuyes me except the silence of my 


* Letter addressed to ‘“‘ The Countess of Erne, Christ Church, Hampshire.” 
VOL. II. 8 


446 The Earl Bishop 


companion (his chaplain, Mr. Lovell)—our weather is excellent, 
our Roads the same, our horses delicious & tout va a merveille 
—you may direct to me for a month to come at Augsburg poste 
restante—and then to Inspruck—tThis (Cassel) is a place of 
singular amusement for one who loves natural History, Painting 
& Sculpture—the town is the most elegant in Germany, a circus 
twice as large as that at Bath—a Square exquisitely elegant & 
spacious—one side of which is form’d by the facade of the 
Museum a repository of everything curious in Arts & Nature, 
& another side opens into the most beautiful country that 
wood, water, Hill & Mountain can form, & in the foreground 
the publick walks & gardens. A gallery 130 feet long contains 
4 Master pieces of Claude Lorraine, 2 landscapes of Rembrandt 
de toute beauté, Portraits & Historical pieces by the same 
Author—almost inimitable—exquisite Vandykes, Holbeins, 
Berghems, & invaluable Teniers—The Publick walks here are 
elegant & magnificent, and the Road to the Wevssenstein or 
country house of the Landgrave about 3 miles out of the town 
most delectable—thither I walk’d this morning between Break- 
fast & dinner to view my old acquaintance which I saw building 
some years ago—but my other acquaintance the poor Prince 
Augustus of Saxe Gotha is desperately ill & I fear irrecoverable. 
That cold dry air which fortifies me, debilitates him, attacks 
his bowels, et le mette a deux doigts du tombeau. 

“ Yesterday I left that strange animal the E. of Findlater at 
Gottingen ; he had fled from Frankfort upon the approach of 
General Castine with some thousand French who had made an 
excursion from Landau, destroyed a magazine at Spire, levied 
contributions at Worms, & was advancing a grands pas to 
Mayence & Frankfort. The great Bankers and wealthy mer- 
chants at this last town had already left it, & the Noble Earl 
was pursuing his route to Berlin & Vienna pour satisfaire ses 
Goits.* Ifever you come abroad again, I advise you to travel 
leisurely thro’ Germany & de bien voir un pays aussi Singulier 
que celui-ci—you will be admirably received at Brunswick, ft 
fétée a Berlin & Gotitée partout—adieu then—till I can receive 
yr letters from Pyrmont where I conclude they are gone, & write 
to me as often as yr spirits & nerves will allow you.”’ 


We have a glimpse of the Bishop at Leipsic soon after 
this. There he called upon an English lady of his acquaintance, 
married to a Bavarian Baron. Her father, Jacob Houblon of 


* James Ogilvy, seventh Earl of Findlater and fourth Earl of Seafield, died s.p. in 1811. 
} By the Duchess of Brunswick, sister of George ITI. 


The Earl Bishop 4A 


Hallingbury, Essex, and her brother were old friends of the 
Bishop, but he had not heard of her marriage to Baron von 
Feilitzsch until he met her at Leipsic where she was on her 
way to England, fleeing from the Continent. 


‘Lord Bristol,’’ she wrote thence in October, 1792,* ‘‘ has 
just interrupted me by a very civil visit, but gave me no intelli- 
gence. He was most diverted with the idea of Sir John Hynde 
Cotton’s grand daughter marrying a German Baron !—says 
had it been an Hanoverian He certainly would have returned 
to haunt me.’’t 


While the Bishop was in Germany this winter, a talented 
little girl in England was dedicating to him “ by permission ”’ 
her first attempt at authorship. Anna Maria Porter, and her 
better-known sister Jane, were to become popular novelists in 
their day. The former, aged fourteen, was at this time pre- 
paring for publication a little volume entitled “ Artless Tales,” 
the dedication to which is dated December 16, 1792. In 
flattering terms this artless child devotes a page or two to the 
Earl Bishop’s praise, and alludes to “ your well-known and 
eminent taste in the fine arts—a taste, my lord, which you 
possess by hereditary right—it has always distinguished your 
family.”’ | 

No clue is forthcoming, however, as to the young authoress’s 
association with the Bishop, and we hear nothing further about 
her. 

We next trace him at Ratisbon, writing thence good sense 
and a graceful refusal to Arthur Young on January 17, 1793: 


“My DEAR ARTHUR, 
“Why will you make me a request with which I - 

cannot in prudence comply ? And why must I say Noto aman 
whom I wish only to answer Yes ? You are as great a quack in 
farming as I once was in politics, & therefore, knowing the 
force of the term I must be on my guard against you. No 
reform, dear Arthur, at this time of day. Ipswich has an old 
prescriptive right to our lambs—we have sold them well at 
that market, buyers are accustomed to it ; have their connec- 
tions there of every kind; may very possibly not come to 


* Letter quoted in ‘“‘ The Houblon Family ’’ (by Lady Alice Archer-Houblon, 1907, 
Vol. II., page 250). The letter writer, Laetitia Houblon, had married 24th November, 17809, 
Baron Friedrich Ludwig von Feilitzsch, Capt. in the Piedmontese Regt. of the King of 
Sardinia. After the Napoleonic wars the Baron sold his German estates and was natural- 
ized in England. 

+ The Baroness’s mother, Mrs. Houblon, was a daughter of Sir John Hynde Cotton, 
who died in 1752. He was a noted Tory member of Parliament. 


VOL. N. 8* 


448 The Earl Bishop 


ee 


Horningheath for many years. Let the buyers advertise that. 
they wish to change the market, & I, tho’ a great heretic against 
most establishments, will be none against them. Adieu mag- 
nanimous Arthur. Reserve your powers for a greater object 


than distressing poor Ipswich by bereaving it of its ancient 
patrimony.* 
‘We have a sheep fair here too at Ratisbon, but of old 


horned rams and not of young Suffolk lambs. Yours cordially, 


BRISTOL.”’ 


The Bishop spent much of the ensuing months at Pyrmont, 
where he drank the waters and had a villa to which he alludes 
as ‘“home.’’ His approval of the Partition of Poland which 
he expresses in the following letter to Lady Erne is the more 
surprising that as an Irish patriot he might be expected to have 
sympathized with a crushed and humiliated people. But he 
had been led to believe that Poland was a hotbed of Jacobinism, 
and the French Anarchy, at its height in the summer of 1793, 
now inspired the Bishop with horror. Henceforth he became 
more and more a partisan of Pitt, and it is amusing to find him 
abusing Fox in terms similar to those formerly applied to 
himself. 

““ Hanover, 


' 29° [Une ras 

‘DEAR Mary, | 

“We are told here that nothing could be more 
eloquent or more logical than Mr. Pitt’s speech in confutation 
of that execrable Demagogue & Rebel Charles James—lI beg 
of you therefore to send me one or two of those papers that Retail 
& detail the best.—Fox seems to be in universal contempt both 
as a man and a Politician all over the continent, & his last 
mendicant pension has made his heart as contemptible as his 
mind. 

“The partition of Poland seems to me to be one of the 
wisest, the most just & the most humane strokes in Politicks 
that has as yet been struck. ’Tis certain past all doubt that 
the french Democracy & Anarchy was on the point of being 
introduced not only into Poland but into Prussia, Pomerania 
&c.t & ’tis hardly possible to meet a man of any station what- 

* Autobiography of Arthur Young. Original letter in British Museum. Add. MSS. 


Lady Bristol, writing January 4, 1793, to Arthur Young, promised to forward his letter 
to the Bishop through the latter’s agent in London. 

+ This was the Empress Catherine’s plausible excuse for her suppression of the Poles 
and she announced everywhere that her object was the necessity of “‘ stifling the influence 
of the horrible tendencies of the dreadful Parisian sect and of the French Demagogues.”’ 
The Bishop had probably caught this widespread belief from his friend Madame BHlise 
de Recke, the protégée and devoted adherent of the Empress. 


*gbtb asnd aov{ of | 


°QcQl “YWOMYAIT 


fe 
Pi SE nil ish 








— SRP gg i te i ge 
Bes aie ae a 


The Earl Bishop 449 


ever who is not imbued with those principles of Chaos. Clubs 


prevail in every town in Germany & such places as Pyrmont, 
Gismar, Meimberg &c. & receive Committees where all these 


opinions are broached & where a stranger need only to shut his 
mouth & open his eyes to be convinc’d of the Progress which 
the love of Anarchy has made in all this country. 

‘We are come here to avoid the rains of Pyrmont, & indeed 
I never breathed a more salubrious air in any country-—but as 
the Barometer rises & with it the clouds we shall set out to- 
morrow for the mountains of Hartz, where are the Hanoverian 
Silver-mines, thence to Gottingen, Cassel & so home—that is 
Dear Pyrmont. I wish you could pass your time as pleasantly 
& as healthfully—I have letters that mention poor dear Louisa’s 
health & spirits to be both bad—is it true ? and what can be 
the cause ? has her friendship with Lady Chatham subsided ? 
I hope not, as she could not have a better society in every respect.* 
Adieu—by what post do you send yr letters to Hanover ?— 


they should go by Helvoetslys & not to Ostende.”’ 


To Lady Erne: 
‘““ Pyrmont, 


“ July 14, 93. 
“Tam delighted to find you are situated so much to yr 


mind, tho’ I wish you had found courage enough to return to 


yr former habitation because it wd have been cheeriuller & 
that I know you love old acquaintances—so I do too, yet I 
find perpetually new ones avec lesquels je me lie de tout mon 


ceeur; of this sort isa Mons. Dimhoff high in office in Peters- 


burg, & nephew to our Woronzow—he was an intimate College 
acquaintance of the favorite Orlow of whom he has this evening 
recited to me the noblest anecdotes and who after exposing 
himself to the plague at Moscow, flying from the Arms of his 
friends his mistress & his Sovereign merely to rescue that un- 
fortunate city from the devastation that harassed it, ended by 
marrying a most beautifull & elegant woman his Gardiner’s 
daughter, & then losing his intellect at her death, & dying 
raving of her—& this Mary, the other day in the 18th Century 
—but what is most extraordinary nobody talks of him, few 
people know him, & no one records his Vertues or his mistor- 
tunes.—He has given me a thousand anecdotes of Potemkin 
& his Mistress (the Empress Catherine II.) & we pass our times 


* Mary Elizabeth, wife of John Pitt, second and last Earl Chatham, second daughter 
of Thomas Townsend, first Viscount Sydney, whose hostile action towards the Bishop 
in former years will be remembered. 


450 The Earl Bishop 


in most delicious promenades—it ever the fancy shd take you to 


visit me at Pyrmont I think I could venture to protect you from 


all sea-sickness—at least it always succeeds with me, tho’ tis 


true I have not weaken’d my stomach with Tea as you have— 
& wth good reason for the smallest cup of it will shrivel up my 


fingers as if I were ninety, will give me cramp in my legs & 


soles of my feet, & bereave me of sleep during half the 
night. 


‘“ But to the ship—lash your carriage to the mast & in the | 


center you know is little or no motion—then let down the glass — 


on the Windward for fresh air, but above all clothe yr self in a 


Pelisse as if it were winter, & keep yrself in a perpetual sweat. — 


I have been 22 hours at sea and felt no inconvenience whatever 


but a little mawkishness at times—& this I first learnt in tra- — 
versing from Leghorn to Corsica in the middle of summer— — 
‘tis the stoppage of perspiration is one of the chief causes of our — 
sickness—keep up that & we are safe—as soon as Valenciennes © 
is taken, away I gallop to Mentz to see a Bombardment, a Breach, ~ 
& a storming. What ails Lou ? I do not hear from her ? she © 
must not think of Ld. St. H.*—’tis too great a risque, & her 


happyness wd be too problematical—adieu sweet Mary write 
often if you can & take the liberty of being comfortable where 
you are.” 


It was during his wanderings in Germany in this year (1793) ) 


that, accompanied by his chaplain, Mr. Lovell, he visited Jena 


where Goethe passed an evening in his company. The story © 


of their interview, at which the Bishop began lecturing the great 
man, but was soon reduced to the mildness of a lamb, is best told 
in Goethe’s own words. f | 
‘Lord Bristol, évéque de Derry, passant par Jena, eut le 
désir de faire ma connaissance, et m’engagea a le visiter un soir. 
I] lui prenoit parfois fantaisie de faire le grossier : mais quand 
on lui renvoyait ses grossiéretés il devenait d’excellente com- 


position, Pendant le cours de notre entretien il voulut me ser- — 


monner touchant Werthert et me charger la conscience de se 
que, par cet ouvrage, j’avais poussé les hommes au suicide. 
‘Werther ’ dit il ‘ est de tous points un livre immoral et dam- 
nable. Halte-la m/’écriai-je—si vous parlez ainsi du pauvre 
Werther, quel ton prendrez-vous alors contre les grands de ce 


* Sir Alleyne Fitzherbert, the distinguished diplomat, had been created Lord St. Helens 
in 1791. He was at this time Ambassador at Madrid. Bornin1753, he was many years 
older than Lady Louisa Hervey. He began his diplomatic career at Brussels in 1777 
when the Hervey family were there. He died unmarried in 1839. 


+ ‘‘ Entretiens de Goethe et D’Eckermann,”’ page 266. 
+ “The Sorrows of Werther ’’ had been published many years. 


~~ as Se a 


The Earl Bishop 451 


monde, qui, d’un seul trait de plume, envoient a campagne 
cent mille hommes dont quatre vingt mille s’égorgeront et s’ex- 
citeront matuellement au meurtre, 4 lincendie et au pillage ? 
Aprés de pareilles horreurs, vous rendez graces a Dieu et vous 
entonnez le Te Deum / que direz vous lorsque, par vos prédica- 
tions sur les terribles chatiments . . . vous avez tellement 
effrayé les Ames faibles de vos paroissiens, qu’ils en perdent la 
raison et terminent leur misérable existence dans une maison de 
fous ? Ou bien encore lorsqu’ au moyen de maintes proposi- 
tions orthodoxes, qui ne tiennent pas devant la raison, vous 
jetez dans les cceurs de vos auditeurs chrétiens la sémence 
funeste du doute, en sorteque ces esprits 4 moitié forts, 4 moitié 
pusillanimes, se perdent dans un labyrinthe, d’on ils ne trouvent 
issue que dans la mort,—Quels reproches ne devez-vous pas 
alors vous adresser 4 vous-méme ? et vous prétendez rendre 
un écrivain responsable, . . . qu’un de ses ouvrages, mal en- 
tendu par des intelligences bornées, a tout au plus purgé le 
monde d’une douzaine de sots et de vauriens incapables de rien 
faire de mieux que d’éteindre complétement le faible reste 
de leur pauvre lumiére, Je pensais avoir rendu a l’humanite 
un véritable service, et m’étre acquis des droits 4 sa reconnais- 
sance, et maintenant voici que vous venez de me faire un crime 
de ce petit exploit, tandisque vous autres prétres et princes, 
vous vous permettez de si grandes et si notables licences ! 

“Cette sortie produisit sur mon évéque un effet superbe. 
I] devint aussi doux qu’un agneau, et, dés ce moment, se con- 
duisit vis-a-vis de moi, durant le reste de notre entretien, avec 
la plus grand courtoisie et le tact le plus délicat. Je passai 
ensuite avec lui une trés-bonne soirée. Lord Bristol, quelque 
erossier qu'il pit étre, avait de l’esprit, et pouvait, sil le 
voulait, traiter avec politesse des matiéres les plus diverses. 
Lorsque je pris congé il m’accompagna, et chargea ensuite 
Vécclesiastique qui Voyageait avec lui de me continuer les 
honneurs. Quand je fus descendu dans la rue avec celui-ci, 
‘Ah, Monsieur de Goethe, que vous avez bien parti, me dit-il, 
combien vous avez plu a ‘Sa Seigneurie! Combien vous avez 
su trouver le mysterieux chemin qui méne a son coeur! Avec 
un peu moins d’apreté et de décision dans cette visite, vous n’en 
seriez point revenu aussi satisfait qu, 4 present!” 


In September of this year, 1793, the Bishop was in Switzer- 
land, and still thinking of the new spire and steeple of Bally- 
kelly. In the following characteristic letter addressed to John 
Beresford the Bishop expresses his sense of the necessity for 
providing labour for the unemployed : 


4.52 The Earl Bishop 


‘‘ Schaffhausen, 
“ard Sept.; 1793: 

CAL 

‘“T send you Mr. Mitchel’s estimate, which is not as 
moderate as I could wish, but your complaisance may possibly 
induce him to execute the work in the ablest manner—by not 
employing an Architect to supervise you will save £60, which 
may be employed in beautifying the steeple & spire, which I — 
hope you will be good enough to make as beautiful as possible. 
As to the Church, I entreat you not to make it larger; the 
increase of our congregation is too problematical, & a small one 
in a large church is as uncomfortable as it is ridiculous. Let it 
decorate the country if it cannot receive it, and at least be a 
monument and an example to posterity how well the squire 
and the Bishop could draw together. As to the execution, 
let me beg you to have all the freestone for the spire and the 
quoins of the steeple quarried this year, that they may be 
hardened for use in the course of the next—this will be of 
great use to us. 

“ T have proposed to your nephew & my friend James Jones 
to build a steeple at Tamlat—keep my Council, I beseech you, 
but give him a jog privately without naming me, & if we can 
employ the idle they will make no riots, and if we can fill their 
bellies they will no more open their mouths. With the greatest 
regards yours BRISTOL.” 


A few days later he wrote again to Beresford on the same 
subject from the St. Gothard en Suisse, September 7, 1793: 


iy he's a 


“Though I troubled you so lately, yet I cannot for- 
bear transmitting the plan & elevation of our Church at Bally- 
kelly, lest Mr. Shanahan should not have provided you with 
one. If your pew is made to project from the Church, I propose 
that for uniformity sake, that of the rector should do the same, 
especially as most rectors are likely to have as numerous a 
family as the squire—few squires are as prolific as yourself, & 
still fewer who so well deserve to be multiplied. . . .” 

On his way to Italy the Bishop becomes lost to our view for 
the next threemonths. Apparently even his family did not know 
Where he was. This appears incidentally 4 propos to a matter 
causing them ccncern which was now under discussion—the 
recall of Lord Hervey from Florence. He had for six years 
been English Envoy to the Tuscan Court where he had lately 


The Earl Bishop 4.58 


given offence. Already in June, 1793, his retirement was 
talked of : 

“Tt will not be possible to allow him to remain,’’ remarks 
Lady Holland (then Lady Webster), ‘‘ after his behaviour to 
the Grand Duke. In those letters which he wrote remonstrating 
against the exportation of grain from Tuscany to France, he 
calls the Grand Duke a fool, and Manfredini (the Prime Minis- 
ter) a knave. Shortly after this Hervey gave ‘a fine ball’ 
to which La Flotte the French Minister was not invited—a very 
marked insult to a neutral Court.”’ 

A letter from Lady Bristol to Lady Erne in September 
alludes to the subject of her son’s recall which was then decided 
‘on, and which caused her much distress. She refers to ‘ Lord 
Grenville’s answer to my letter which besides the unexpected 
mortification of it, shuts the door to all future plans abroad, and 
shows me that he does not lose his situation by the revenge of 
the Italian Minister, but by his own indiscretion. Fred saw 
Mr. Pitt this morning. Nothing could be more gracious, open 
and condescending, with very obliging professions of regard 
to the Family, and concern for this unlucky incident. I find 
they have nothing in view for him but a pension—but we must 
try for some distinction.” 

It was now arranged that Frederick Hervey should set 
out for Florence to break to his brother the decision of the 
Government to recall him. It was hoped moreover that he 
would meet his father in Italy, and that a healing of the breach 
which had existed between them for some years would ensue. 

“Here is the 27th, dear Mary,’ continues Lady Bristol, 
« & Louisa will have told you our successful application in order 
to soften this fdcheuse pilule, & the kind manner in wch we have 
been treated by Administration. I have no doubt that we 
shall work round again, tho’ this eddy has carried us out of our 
course—Fredk.’s request to be messenger of bad news is so un- 
common that I see it has struck Mr. Pitt very much, and he 
has behav’d with uncommon kindness to him. It is certainly 
a charming thing, and I think his going to Hervey will mollity 
him & do a great deal of good—He sets out tomorrow, by 
which means he carries the letters from Mr. Conolly* & Lady 
Mar? to his brother who is to find out Ld. B. (Bristol). Have 
you heard from him since his account of his illness P_ I hope you 
passed a comfortable day with Bess tho’ you had but bad 
materials to make it so—however it is a relief to discharge the 


bf 


* Mr. and Lady Louisa Conolly had taken charge of the orphan daughter of the un- 
happy George Robert Fitzgerald. 


+ Lady Mary Fitzgerald. 


454. The Earl Bishop 


mind, & talk over with unreserv’d discussion all these extra- 
ordinary events. 

‘“We must labour incessantly to bring some good out of all 
this evil. I sometimes think that dear Fredk. going over to 
Italy at this moment may bring about your Father’s recon- 
ciliation—how happy that would make us—®& if he settles, it 
will make England pleasanter to Hervey & may in the end 
reconcile him to all things. I have staid in Town upon all 
these matters, & very lucky it was that I did so, as we concerted 
& executed measures with great & prosperous celerity—wch 
a to & fro to Wimbledon wd not have allow’d. I now stay 
to present Mrs. Vincent* & then hope to go there till Christmas 
to rest my weary spirits.’ 


Lady Bristol’s next letter to Lady Erne, written three 
days later, on her return to Wimbledon (where she and Louisa 
now resided), gives so much general news and so vivid a picture 
of Queen Charlotte’s drawing room at which she presented 
Mrs. Vincent, that it must find place here : 


‘Wimbledon, 
‘“ 30th Sept. 1793. 


“Here I am again to tell you that I was at the drawing- 
room on Thursday, wch was the pleasantest that could be ; 
fuil enough ; & everybody one knew with nobody one did not 
know—Lord Mansfield (Lord Stormont had become Earl of 
Mansfield by the death of his uncle earlier in the year) en- 
quir'd a great deal after you & was quite concerned that they 
should have been as near you at Chichester on their way from 
the Isle of Wight without seeing you, wch I assur’d him you 
would equally regret—& that I thought if they.had given you 
notice you wd have met them there—Sr. Gilbert Elliot kissed 
hands on being appointed Commissioner at Toulon—he is 
joined with Gen. O’Hara & Lord Hood—but he will be the ¢ée 
et la langue for Ld. Hood does not know a word of French, 
& I am told Sr Gilbert Elliot is a master of it, & has liv’d a great 
deal in France ; wch I hope will give him great advantages for 
he will have to negociate things of the utmost importance. I 
think it seems a good measure to have such a person on the spot 
—& I hope will encourage the well disposed to enter ye League. 
We are by this time strong: there was 6,000 men expected 
from Naples to join the English & Spaniards & Piedmontese, 

* Mrs. Vincent, née Isabella Hervey, a daughter of the Hon. Felton Hervey, fourth son 


of the first Earl. She was grandmother of the late Sir William and Sir Howard Vincent, 
and of Lord D’Abernon. 


The Earl Bishop 455 


& I imagine will be glad to have our protection now we have 
disclaimed dominion & desire of conquest. Mr. Dundas left 
Mr. Pitt for a quarter of an hour yesterday morning—& told 
us that it was suppos’d that Bordeaux was in a state of insur- 
rection & had drove out the Municipality—the last accts were 
that Lyons was very little hurt & if it cou’d hold out there 
wou'd probably be a large district recover’d from Tyranny— 
has not poor Madlle Chaumelle (who had been Governess at 
Geneva to Mary and Elizabeth Hervey in 1776) been very 
miserable for her friend ? The D. of Gl. (Gloucester) told me at 
Court that you was very much in the dum#s but that he had 
tryed to cheer you & they all seem in good spirits that is certain 
—but seeming is the Mode at Court—our two new Princes made 
their first appearance; & were much lik’d. Prince Augustus 
as you know is charming—good figure, good address, rather 
handsome, ef ne se possédant pas de joye to find himself there 
—P. Adolp. (afterwards Duke of Cambridge) is like the D. of 
Y. (York) handsome—lively, but so fresh & healthy that the 
black patch over his eye lost its effect. The D. of Clarence came 
in wth them ; the Duke of York was not there & perhaps he 
did not like to appear with a new edition of himself, but he 
might venture, for he wd still primer—There was Mrs. Hobart 
become Countess of Buckinghamshire filling up half the room & 
d'un bel contento, tho’ they have got nothing with the title, 
but I suppose they will get a pension to help to support it. 

“The D. of Richmond was at Court—I think rather low— 
he wanted us all to go to Goodwood. The D. of Devonshire 
wants us to go to Hardwick, but I believe I shall do neither, 
but probably creep into my house in Cleveland Row, for I cannot 
get rid of it to any certainty, & I feel so asham’d of not being 
able to pay my last year’s rent, wch never happen’d before, 
but I think of any extra expence with horror. 

‘“ Bess’s coming here will be some (expence), but I think it is 
essential to her—All is to pieces at D. H. (Devonshire House) 
and no plan settled. I expect her tomorrow to stay a month. 
I think she looks well tho’ she is very thin indeed—I flatter 
myself that you are today at Brightelmstone and will find 
this at yr return—tell Caroline I have a letter half written to 
her wch only waits for a frank . . . you see Lord Mulgrave 
commands at Toulon & I am glad it is in such good hands. . . 
No ladies (at Court) en démocrate but a ted Calotte border’d 
with grey, tout d fait en Cardinal.” 


Later in the Autumn Lady Bristol writes to Lady Erne, 
‘Wimbledon, Sunday the 8th,’ that she hopes Frederick— 


4.56 The Earl Bishop 


“poor fellow ’’——would arrive at Florence by the time Hervey — 
returns from Toulon, and by that delay have the advantage © 
of giving the first intelligence himself ; ‘‘ which will be a great 
point as he has the material to soften it—I think it will end well 
for us—I only dread his (Lord Hervey’s) warmth of temper. . . 
I have been obliged to take diacodium going to bed, I sleep so 
ill & wake so agitated. . . . [ will not tell you how many things 
I fear & how few I hope.”’ 


Frederick Hervey travelled day and night to Florence, and 
on the way met with Lady Webster, who notes of him in her 
‘journals ’’ that he was ‘“‘ very unhappy at the suddenness and 
mystery of the proceedings.” 

His mission to his brother being concluded, Frederick re- 
turned from Florence in December, “ bearing despatches to 
England,’ Lady Webster further records, “relating to the 
loss of Toulon.” 

During his journey to and from Florence he does not seem to 
have come across his father then wandering in Northern Italy, 
so no opportunity occurred for the reconciliation which Lady 


Bristol so much desired. The Bishop indeed was not one to — 


fall in with plans in the making of which he himself had no hand, 
especially if his wife were privy to them, and—likely enough— 
he may have purposely turned his course to avoid meeting his 
younger son, with whom he was still out of humour. Moreover, 
he doubtless held views of his own with regard to his elder son, 
and the incidents leading to the latter’s quitting his post. 

Lord Hervey remained at Florence some two months longer, 
pending arrangements. ‘“‘ Lord Hervey lives a good deal with 
me,’ Lady Webster notes in her journal (Florence, 19th 
January, 1794). ‘‘He seems to dislike his recall and talks of 
going into the Navy, where by the way he is very unpopular. 
W. Windham’s appointment (to succeed Hervey) is not much 
relished, as the Court (of Tuscany) want a steady reasonable 
man disposed to smooth matters.’ Lady Webster makes no 
further mention of Lord Hervey by name, but on February 
14,* she records with abhorrence his declaration of his passion 


* “ Surprise & embarrassment have completely overset me. Oh! what vile animals 
men are, with headstrong passions. Now I have heard, from the lips of one who affects 
morality and domestic virtues, maxims that would revolt all but the most depraved. 
* Pécher en sécret, n'est point pécher.’ I told him it savoured of his Jesuitical education. 
His justification was that a singular combination of events arose to create a passion, where 
in truth so little could be expected in return. His long absence from home, perfect seclu- 
sion and the strong impression of delight at meeting a countrywoman who brought back 
remembrance of past scenes—this complicated feeling made him deck the object who re- 
vived the recollection in glorious colours and in him created a violent and, I hope transitory 
alienation from sense and propriety. Distress, awkwardness, and good-nature made me 
act like a fool, but I was obliged to be peremptory latterly, as he proceeded to downright 


The Earl Bishop 4.57 


for herself. Lady Webster had for some years been unhappily 
married to a man of violent temper who was subject to fits. 
She broke with him eventually in order to unite herself to young 
Lord Holland. Lady Webster and Lord Hervey did not meet 
again after the scenes she described. She left Florence for a 
time, and when she came back, he was gone, never to 
return. 

For some time after Lord Hervey’s departure the reasons 
for it continued to be discussed in Italy. The following account 
which presents the talk current in Florence is given in a private 
letter from Mr. Richard Durnford, a gentleman travelling 
in Italy during 1794-95, who knew Lord Hervey and also the 
Bishop of Derry.* ‘‘ Lord Hervey,’ he writes to a friend, June 
17, 1794, “‘ having been ordered to leave Florence, gave ground 
for a report in the English papers that the Ambassador was sent 
away by the Grand Duke. The cause of his dismissal was that 
he had carried a letter from Prince Tricase, demanding an 
apology from Prince Carsini, who, in the public character of 
Master of the Ceremonies, had ordered the candles to be ex- 
tinguished whilst Tricase was engaged at play with two or three 
other Cavalieri, because he (Carsini) had been commanded by 
an order from the Court to stop all play after 12 o’clock. The 
authority was not disputed, but it was the style of executing 
it that gave umbrage ; and as Lord Hervey was desired the 
next day to carry his note desiring an interview or an apology, 
the note was returned opened, and Prince Carsini refused both the 
one and the other. However, Lord Hervey was ordered by 
the Court to depart, and no notice whatever was taken of Tri- 
case, who is a Neapolitan, and certainly of the two he was 
the aggressor. I saw Lord Hervey afterwards in Rome. His 
father Lord Bristol told me some time ago that he (Hervey) 
was allowed one or two thousand a year, I forget which ; 
this proves that though he was turned out upon account of 
his precipitate manner and treatment of the Tuscan Court, yet 


violence. One night, I was compelled to get out of the carriage to avoid his pressing 
importunities. However his last words were ‘ Be kind & discreet!’ We is in great alarm 
at his wife’s knowing this écart, as he affects great conjugal felicity. ... I have again 
heard ’s last words: ‘I love you, for my passions are stronger than my reason ; you being 
good, gentleand handsome justify me—for the sake of others be discreet !’ I will indeed ! 
Rochefoucauld lays upon my table, he opened it at the 514th maxim which he observed 
was fallacious, and gave himself as a contradictory proof. On passe souvent de l’amour & 
lambition; mais on ne revient guéve de l ambition al amour.’’—‘‘ Lady Holland’s Journal,”’ 
Vol. I., page 115. 

Lady Hervey was visiting her mother, Mrs. Drummond, at Megginch Castle at this 
time. 





* Durnford on his return to England was ordained and, marrying soon afterwards, 
became the father of the late Bishop of Chichester, whose son, Mr. R. Durnford, owns a 
number of interesting letters written by his grandfather in Italy. 


458 The Earl Bishop 


Ministry must have ordered him to act in that manner.” What- 
ever the whole truth may have been, it is clear that Hervey 
was in no disgrace with the English Government, for he was 
granted a pension of £{1,500a year. This must have done much 
to “soften the fdcheuse pilule,’ to use Lady Bristol’s expres- 
sion, and perhaps was in some measure the outcome of her 
exertions. 

But Hervey did not long enjoy his pension, for he died at sea 
in less than two years. 


CBRAPLTH hea i 


1794 


| ioe was the Earl Bishop wandering since we left him 


at St. Gothard in September, 1793, on his way to 

Italy ? He eludes our search till we find him at Trieste in the 
following January. There he has been detained by illness, 
but is none the less keeping a sharp look out on passing events. 
He writes thence on the 15th of that month, 1794, at I p.m., 

a letter of secret intelligence to Sir William Hamilton (“ Hamil- 
ton and Nelson (Morrison) Papers’’), availing himself of the oppor- 
tunity of sending it by safe hands to Naples. It was a constant 


_ object of the Bishop during the latter part of his career to keep 


Hamilton, and, through him, the Anglophil Queen of Naples 
au courant of affairs in the various countries and states through 
which he passed. 

“This moment,” he writes, “‘ the whole fleet of transports, 
gun-boats, and all, are under weigh for Venice; the wind is 
neither favourable or strong, but in two days they hope to reach 
it, & as no one is likely to give you information but me, I will 
not lose the opportunity Col. Williams gives me of writing to 
you especially as you may communicate it @ la premiére des 
jemmes—cette maitresse femme.’’ (Caroline, wife of Ferdinand, 
King of Naples.) 

“ This damned climate—cold damp & ungenial—ruins me. 
I have been in bed these four weeks with what is called a flying 
gout, but, were it such, it would have gone long ago, & it hovers 
round me like a ghost round its sepulcre ; my best love to dearest 


i mma.’’ 


What whim led the veteran wanderer to flit from Trieste 
to Aosta it is not easy to guess. Search of health or a mild 
climate could hardly have been his motive in travelling across 
north Italy to Piedmont in winter. An object may have been 
to get news at first hand of the French movements, and to pass 


459 


460 The Earl Bishop 


it on to his friends at Naples ; for Aosta was not far from the 
seat of war. Whatever his object, he was at Aosta on 
February 26, 1794, signing a codicil to his will. Presumably 
he became seriously ill there, and in consequence bethought him 
of making additions to his will of 1791. It may be remarked 
that this codicil (which is now with his will at Somerset House) 
contains no reference to his son Frederick, and thus indicates 
that no reconciliation had as yet taken place. 

In view of the persistent advance of the French towards 
Piedmont, a southern course would shortly have become 
advisable for the traveller. During March and April, 1794, 
the “‘ Army of the Alps’”’ made several attempts to seize the 
Mont Cenis Pass. By April 23 it had got possession of the St. 
Bernard Pass, and soon afterwards captured the Mont Cenis. 
Before this the Bishop appears to have reached Florence, as 
it becomes evident that he associated with Alfieri and the Coun- 
tess d’Albany at this time: and here, too, he would have fallen 
in with young Durnford when they had the conversation about 
Lord Hervey’s pension. Durnford, as we have seen, writing 
in June, alludes to this as having taken place some time before. 

The Bishop passed the summer of 1794 in the burning heat 
of mid-Italy. During July and August he was at Siena— 
the Athens of Tuscany, as he called it. There his interest 
in geological observation revived with the zest of past years. 
It was excited by a phenomenon, which he discusses in three 
letters to Sir William Hamilton. On July 12, 1794, he writes : 


“The first time I had the honour of writing to you it was to 
request a favor. I flatter myself that upon this occasion I 
may be able to confer one, if to a person of your philosophical 
genius the communication of a phenomenon singular in its 
nature can be deemed such. 

“Upon Monday 16th June, as you will find by the enclosed 
narrative in the midst of a most violent thunderstorm about a 
dozen stones of various weights & dimensions fell at the feet 
of different people—The stones are of a quality not found in 
any other part of Sienese territory ; they fell about 18 hours 
after the enormous eruption of Vesuvius, which circumstance 
leaves choice of difficulties in the solution of this extraordinary 
phenomenon,—either these stones have been generated in the 
igneous mass of clouds which produced such unusual thunder, 
or, which is equally incredible, they were thrown from Vesuvius 
at a distance of at least 250 miles—judge then of its parabola. 
The philosophers here incline to the first solution. I wish much, 
sir, to know your sentiments, & those of your friends.” 


The Earl Bishop 461 


: Soon afterwards he wrote a second letter. ‘“‘ My blundering 
head, dear Sir forgot to send you yesterday this specimen of 
the aerial stone. All the philosophical world is in arms about 
this phenomenon and all impatient to know your opinion ; 
the chief point to know is whether in this eruption Signore 
Vesuvius has emitted such a stone ; next, whether it is chem1- 
cally possible for such a stone to be generated in a thunder- 
storm. Ten thousand good wishes to dear respectable Emma 
from your faithful friend B.” 


Sir William, in reply, evidently reported in favour of the 
thunderbolt theory. The Bishop writes his third letter from 
Siena on August 4, 1794: 


“ T communicated your very excellent and most philosophical 
letter, my dear Sir Wm. to Father Soldani* in whose convent 
J am now writing ; he is in raptures at hearing that you had 
even for an instant the same idea as himself about these stones, 
whose generation appears to him every day more and more 
incontrovertible. His pamphlet on this subject is gone to the 
press but in the meantime he begs you will be good enough to 
_make his correspondent Dr. Thompson at Naplest communicate 
to you an abstract of his dissertation. 

‘““Soldani is a most sensible candid unprejudiced and in- 
telligent man, indefatigable in the pursuit of truths & with a 
mind open to all information from whatever quarter ; he wishes 
much to know if your Vesuvius has thrown out any stones 
resembling the fragment I sent you. Such a circumstance 
would a little stagger his theory which all the babbling of Siena 
—male as well as female—does not as yet affect. Historians, 
both ancient & of the middle ages, have recorded something 
similar. 
| ‘“‘ In the month of October I hope to see you at Naples where 
I hope to pass the winter for the purpose of sea-bathing. Be 
so good therefore as to inform me in your next if you do not 
_ judge the air of Pizzofalcone much thinner and purer than that 
of Santa Lucia on the Chiaia. I recollect Lady Orford being 
lodged there, and also the Duchess of Weimar at whose concert 
we were; but I wish your oracular decision about it; for a 
quartan fever which has harassed me for ten months requires 
wthe thinnest air.” 

* Ambrogio Soldani (1733-1808), a learned Italian ecclesiastic, naturalist and author. 
_ From Pisa he went to Siena in 1778, where he spent his time in examining the local fossil 
_ Shells, ‘‘ very much aided by a microscope of Dollond’s manufacture, presented to him by 


Lord Bristol.’”” (Nouvelle Dict. Biog.) 
+ The celebrated Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, 1753-1814. 


VOL. II. 9 


462 The Earl Bishop 


While at Siena he dashed off in his impulsive manner the i 





following letter to Alfieri, who had lately brought out his tragedy | 


Saul. 


‘A Sienne, l’Athénes de la Tuscane, 
‘ce 13 Juillet, oae 


“Comment se porte mon cher Dante, le Comte Alfieri ? — 
Que circumvolitas agilis thyma ? Non tibi parvum Ingenium, ~ 


non incultum est, nee turpiter hirtum. 


“Jai dévoré Saul, je le digére actuellement. Il me donne © 


une plus haute idée de vos talents que jamais. Il faut vous le 
voir jouer pour augmenter mon idée de votre sensibilité. Vous 
me ferez donc ce plaisir, n’est-ce pas mon ami? Et Il’adorable 
Comtesse ! Comment se porte-t-elle! Si les démons de Fran- 
cois arrivent jusqu’a Turin, je vous offre ma bourse, mon 


chateau et mon parc. Pour la cave, vous n’en voulez point, — 
car, non content d’avoir le génie de Pindare, vous en avez © 


aussi le gotit— 


“Jupiter vient de nous assommer d’une pluie de pierres, © 
telles que les anciens Romains eurent sur le Mont Albano— ~ 


Ce phénoméne arriva 18 heures aprés l’éruption du Vésuve. 


Le Pére Soldani soutient que ces pierres furent générées dans les © 


- 


Nues Tonnantes ; et moi je prétends qu’elles furent jetées par — 
la bombe de Vésuve, Je crois que nous avons tort l’un et l'autre, — 
et que jamais ces pierres ne sont tombées dans ce voisinage. — 
Votre chimie, cher Comte, ne s’intéresse pas a la pierre philo- — 


sophe. Elle consiste dans l’analyse, et dans l’empire sur le 


coeur humain, dont vous savez si bien déployer tous les plis et — 
les replis ;—et parmi tous ceux que vous avez gagné, nul ne ~ 


CO, pee Ie 


vous est plus attaché que celui du Comte de Bristol, Evéque de | 


Derry. Mes Adorations 4 Madame la Comtesse.” (“ Lettere@ 


edite e inedite di Vittorio Alfieri,’ by Mazzotinto.) 


The latter was, of course, the Countess d’Albany, who both ~ 
as the wife and the widow (as she now was) of Prince Charles — 
Edward the Pretender, ‘‘ Count d’Albany,” had long lived with — 
Alfieri in Florence, ‘‘in a state of dubious intimacy,’ as Lady ~ 


Holland, who associated much with them, puts it ; and the liai- — 
son was openly acknowledged while the Countess continued to — 
receive full recognition as a Royal Highness, if not claiming © 


Oueenly rank. 


Alfieri, the ‘‘ Sophocles ”’ (as he was called) rather than the 
“Dante ’’ of his time, a genius of severe and grave disposition, ~ 
was little likely to relish the persiflage of the ‘‘ Count Bishop ” ; 
moreover, the Latin couplet as applied to him—“ sprightly one, — 





The Earl Bishop 463 


you have no small talent, nor is it uncultivated, nor disgrace- 
fully rugged ’’—fell short of such flattery as would gratify 
the illustrious poet who was notoriously vain. Thus it is not 
surprising to find Alfieri expressing his opinion of the Bishop 
in terms not altogether complimentary. While evidently 
taking some sally of the Bishop in a highly serious vein, he writes 
on September 2, 1794, to a friend at Siena, Maris Bianchi :* 


“[ forgot to say two words to you about that English 
Bishop, Bristol. He is a madman,t but not without ability 
or culture. I have known him some little time. His proposi- 
tion and my reply are true in part but not entirely, as you gather, 
because he did not say that the third profession for me should 
be the executioner ; but he said that in these times it seemed 
likely to be the only profession which will not fail. But that 
makes me shudder, & I should prefer to be the victim rather than 
the slayer ’’—(an allusion to the “ Reign of Terror ”’ then at its 
height). 


It was not long before this that the Bishop had done a kind- 
ness to the Countess d’Albany and thus indirectly to Alfieri. 
She lost no opportunity of sending pitiful complaints to the 
English Government about her poverty through losses conse- 
quent on the French Revolution ; and at her request Thomas 
Pitt, Lord Camelford, wrote to his cousin William, the Minister, 
urging that her claims should be brought to the notice of King 
George himself.t Camelford, however, died before dispatch- 
ing the appeal, and it was eventually forwarded to Pitt by the 
Bishop. The Countess in after life showed little sense of 
obligation to the Bishop for this good-natured action. 

There was another link between Madame d’Albany and the 
Bishop, inasmuch as it was through his introduction that 
she and Alfieri made the acquaintance about this time of the 
young French artist Fabre,§ who henceforth was to become 
the closest companion of both to the end of their lives; while 
Fabre himself for many years owed his bread in great measure 
to the liberal patronage of the Bishop who admired and belauded 
his talents. Notwithstanding which the Countess will be found 


* Original in Italian. ‘‘ Lettere edite e inedite,’’ Mazzotinto. 

+ Alfieri was himself subject to attacks which made him suspected of madness. 

t Earl Stanhope’s “‘ Life of William Pitt,’’ Vol. II., page 181, quoted in Herbert 
Vaughan’s, “‘ The Last Stewart Queen,” page 185. 

§ Francois-Xavier Pascal Fabre, of Montpellier, where he was bornin1766. He became 
eminent as a portrait painter in Florence. His particular talents are marked by extreme 
purity of design, by warm colouring and by careful finish, whilst he was greatly 
attracted by landscape painting. (Noticesur Mr. F. X. Fabre par Mr. Garnier, 1837-1838.) 
He died in 1837 at Montpellier. 


VOL. I. g* 


464 The Earl Bishop 


eee 


habitually sneering at the generous patron of her young friend 


behind his back, and making him a butt for her heavy German 
wit.* 

Another glimpse of the Bishop at Siena during the summer 
.of 1794 1s afforded by a letter from him to Lady Erne which 

shows how keen was his enjoyment of Italian life and atmosphere 
in spite of his poor health. | 
oLends 
“roth August, ’94. 

“The warm weather, my dearest Mary, has done me infinite 
service & the cool weather come in after the rains is going 
to do as much—I bathe every day at Noon in a whale of a 
tub, I sleep every night out of town at a Villa whose atmo- 
sphere is senza paragone & return in the morn to chocolate 
& company: never reprobate Italian hospitality! This Villa 
with ro handsome rooms on a floor is lent by a man [ never 
saw in my life but hearing of my convalescence has given his 
mite to smooth it. We shall not move towards Naples till 
October, & then change from Cold Baths to Sea baths, for my 
whole nervous system is so shaken that the interior of Calabria 
is not more so. 

‘“T had a most affectionate letter from Lady L. Derry? but 
greatly out of spirits with her final exile to Ireland, & warmly 
soliciting my return. ’Tis strange that nobody is happy— 
Husband, Children, Parents Property, nobody is capable of 
enjoying —I attribute it all to your diet; that cursed Tea 
which unstrings ye all & unfits you for every enjoyment but the 
flutter for the moment ; pray tell dearest Lou I wish she wd 
try a glass of fresh spring water at going into bed. I have 
never known any Remedy calm the frame so completely as 
that, & produce so happy an insensible perspiration—her 
complaints in my opinion derive entirely from the Nervous 
system, wch was ruin’d at Rome & at Albano. 

“Tam glad Lady Herveyt is gone to Scotland ; the solitude 
of Ickworth wd never have suited her—next year I hope to 
pass the autumn there & lay the foundation of my new house. 
Ld. Hood has most certainly block’d up the flotilla (at Toulon), 
& is gone himself with fireships, if posszble to destroy them—if 
it can be done he will do it, for a greater Antigallican does not 


* Born a Princess of Stolberg, she had, however, some good Scotch blood in her veins, 
through her maternal grandmother, Lady Maria Theresa Charlotte Bruce, daughter of the 
third Earl of Elgin. 

| Lady Frances Stewart, wife of Charles Stewart, now Baron (afterwards first Marquis 
of) Londonderry. 

¢ His daughter-in-law Lady Hervey, with her only child Eliza, lived much at Megginch 
Castle with her mother Mrs. Drummond, before and after Lord Hervey’s death. 


The Earl Bishop 465 


-exist—not even myself. Mr. Pitt’s last speech is invaluable 
& has raised the spirits of all Italy & of all English in Italy— 
Adieu dearest Mary, I am as usual up to the eyes in letters 
and must conclude this.” 


This is the last of the series of the Bishop’s letters to Lady 
Erne in Mrs. Talbot’s collection, though he certainly continued 
to write to her. 

Young Durnford, whom we have already encountered on 
his travels, passing several months at Siena during 1794, writes 
thence to a friend on August 29: 


‘Td. Bristol the father of Ld. Hervey the late Minister, 
has been here for some time. I dine with him very often. 
He is a very strange character, like many other sensible men.”’ 


Writing from Florence, September 27, 1794, Durntford 
reports : 


“There are several English here . . . Lord Holland, Lord 
Wickham, Lord Bristol, Sr. Godfrey Webster and family— 
some naval Officers, &c. They dine together in parties generally 
every day, but as yet I have not been able to make one among 
them. We are now m@gre than ever in the dumps about polli- 
ticks—it is believed the French will certainly come into Italy, 
and what is more the Tuscans will be glad to see them. You 
have no idea, according to what I am told, how much Jacobinism 
is in vogue in this country. They say this Court has been en- 
deavouring to negotiate, but that the French have made answer 
not at all favorable to any overtures of neutrality.” 


We have an interesting glimpse of the Bishop during his 
next visit to Rome intent on plans for the building of the 
new house at Ickworth as yet not actually begun. We sus- 
pect that it was his custom to pick the brains of many archi- 
tects, while each one may have supposed that his own was 
the only design to be employed. C. H. Tatham writes from 
Rome at this time to his friend Henry Holland the architect : 


“The Earl of Bristol Bishop of Derry, lately arrived in 
Rome, to my great surprise consulted me to make him a design 
for a Villa to be built in Suffolk (Ickworth) extending nearly 
500 feet, including offices. The distribution of the plan is 
very singular the House being oval according to his desire.” 
So far, then, the house was in embryo, and it is not till some 


466 The Earl Bishop 


two years later that it appears in process of construction. 
(Letter dated Nov. 19th, 1794. Original in Library of Victoria 
and Albert Museum.) 


The story of the Bishop’s movements is next carried on by 
one Joseph Denham in a letter to Lady Hamilton, dated Rome, 
November 4th, 1794. (‘‘ Hamilton and Nelson Papers,’ Vol. 
[., letter 248.) 


“ T dined with Lord Bristol last Sunday, and he has invited 
me again today. . . . His Lordship departs tomorrow for Naples 
& I intend to call on him this evening. In the meantime | 
would not miss the post to inform your ladyship of what | 
think it proper you should know before you see Lord Bris- 
tol... . His Lordship made a long and elaborate eulogy 
on you, praising all your virtues and particularly your attach- 
ment to Sir William, concluding that God Almighty must have 
been in a glorious mood when he made you, and though in general 
He made but a bungling piece of work of it, yet he had outdone all 
the rest in forming Lady Hamilton. From this he travelled into 
another ground, and said he had a very advantageous proposal 
to make to Sir William, which he hoped to succeed in. Hear 
and wonder!: Lord Hervey, it seems, has obtained a pen- 
sion from Government of fifteen hundred pounds a year, for 
the loss of his Ministry at Florence, & Lord Bristol intends to 
propose that this should be turned over to Sir William, provided 
he will resign his employ at Naples to Lord Hervey, which Lord 
B. seems to consider a good bargain for Sir William. All this 
told in a mixed company, I did not think proper to make any 
comment on so extraordinary a scheme, though it occurred 
to me that Sir William could never be so stupid as to give up 
£3500 a year for less than half the money. 

‘““ My loyalty to both yr Ladyship & Sir William has prompted 
me to advertise you of all this, that you may be apprized of 
the object of Lord Bristol’s jaunt to Naples. Indeed I think 
he will surprise you at Caserta from Capua. I trust to yr 
secresy & prudence on receiving him. . Cardinal de Bernis 
the late French Ambassador died here two days ago.’ 

The Hamiltons doubtless knew their old friend the Bishop 
too well to be affected by Denham’s secret intelligence, not the 
less calculated for mischief-making that it was under the guise 
of “‘ Loyalty,” and welcomed him as cordially as ever on his 
arrival at Naples. They had probably chosen his quarters 
for the winter, in accordance with his request some months 
earlier, and we find him duly established there in November. 


The Earl Bishop 467 


The Rev. Narcissus Proby,* rector of Stratford St. Mary, 
Colchester, having provided his friend Mr. Robert Bradstreet 
with a letter of introduction to the Bishop at Naples, Brad- 
street sent to Proby a pleasant account of his interview with 
the Bishop there. He wrote from : 


‘““ Rome, 
“ Nov. 20th, 1794.T 


“T waited till the last moment in hopes of being able to 
give you some account of Ld Bristol, who was daily expected 
at Naples, but did not arrive till the day before that I had fixed 
for my departure. As I was not likely to have another oppor- 
tunity of presenting the letter which you was kind enough to 
give me to him, I ran the hazard of being guilty of an impro- 
priety in delivering it so abruptly, & so long after date, rather 
than miss the opportunity of seeing him. He was in the hurry 
of taking possession of the house he has hired for the winter & 
surrounded with pictures he had newly bought, but received us 
very politely, & made many enquiries after you. He quoted, 
& seemed determined to put in practice Pope’s doctrine To 
enjoy is to obey—to which, according to the character you had 
given me of him he added that of making others enjoy too. 
An instance of his liberality that took place when I was there 
was pleasant enough. A decent elderly woman came in to pay 
her respects & asked him how he did. ‘Like the Bishop,’ 
says he, & pointing to a pile of stuff—‘ look here,’ says he, 
‘This is for you.’ The poor woman looked first at the stuff, 
& then at the Bishop, da capo, till at last she burst into tears, & 
began kissing his hand; saying she was not worthy to kiss 
his hand, and would like to kiss his foot, ‘No,’ says he, ‘I am 
no Pope, tho’ lama Bishop. [Tama heretic & must be damned 
you know?’ ‘Oh! No, No,’ says the woman with a tone 
of doubt & distress that was inimitable—and in Sterne’s hands 
would have made an excellent companion for Corporal Trim 
doubting whether a negro had a soul or not. 


* Rev. Narcissus Proby was son of Narcissus C. Proby, Esq., of Damastown, Dublin, 
and of Chester, by Catherine Elizabeth (born 1 700), daughter of Capt. James Howard 
(grandson of the first Earl of Berkshire). 

+ The owner of the letter, Miss Caroline Bradstreet, has kindly allowed me to verify 
the date by reference to the original. 


CHAPTER XLVII 


1794-1795 


[yi is easy to see that Emma Hamilton and the Bishop were 

likely to find each other the best of good company. The 
Bishop’s humour, broad, spontaneous, reckless, with that 
qualty of surprising which is often more exhilarating than 
subtler wit, appealed doubtless to the romping spirits of Emma ; 
and we may well imagine that the responsive laughter with 
which she received his sallies, and her quickness in repartee, 
made her society attractive to him. Both he and Emma were 
endowed with that joze de vivre which made them remain at heart 
children of nature, the while they lived in the forefront of the 
world. Moreover, while they there played, or thought they 
played, a prominent part in state intrigues, or in the wider area 
of European politics, both found, in the stir and excitement 
of such matters, a source of keenest interest which they shared 
and which drew them together. 

For Emma, indeed, here was a fresh and glorious field that 
had but lately opened before her ; she who, when the mistress 
of Hamilton, had never been received at the Court of Naples, 
was now, as Lady Hamilton, raised to a place unique among 
Ambassadresses as the favoured intimate of the Queen—that 
maitresse femme, who, while the King was given up to boar- 
killing ruled the kingdom with her English Minister, and 
cultivated with assiduity England and the English. 

This was the heyday of Emma’s prosperity. A phase of 
celebrity undreamt of had come upon her, and not only was 
her life now decent, but her position was exalted. Ambition 
had taken the place of passion—Passion, it is true, was to 
awaken in later years under the spell of the greatest hero of 
the age ; but, in the early years of her marriage, to rise so as to 
fill with éclat the eminence of her new sphere was the object of 
her aim and endeavour. Thus for her, lowly born, and hitherto 
besmirched, but now “ dear respectable ’’ Emma, the patronage 

468 


The Earl Bishop 469 


and favour of so renowned a personage as the Earl Bishop 
was a privilege too valuable not to be highly appreciated ; 
while the cosmopolitan, intriguing Bishop on his part found 
in Emma’s position at the Court of Naples an opportunity 
for himself to gain a footing in the inner circle of its Hapsburg- 
born Queen—the sister of the Emperor who was the centre and 
mainspring of European state-craft. And so it came about 
that the good-fellowship of the Bishop and Lady Hamilton 
was cemented by a common bond of interest, thoroughly 
gratifying to the vanity of both. 

Certain letters of the Bishop to Lady Hamilton were— 
many years after his death—pilfered from her papers with 
a number of Nelson’s letters to her, and were ungenerously 
published during her lifetime. They are to be found in the 
supplement to a book called ‘“ Letters of Lord Nelson ’”’ (pub- 
lished in 1815). Undated for the most part, and without 
context or explanation, the Bishop’s effusive expressions of 
admiration and affection were proclaimed as an indication of 
Lady Hamilton’s depravity—the true object of their publication 
being of course to procure a wide sale among lovers of scandal. 
These pilfered letters, however, were only a small portion of 
the Hamilton correspondence ; a large number of letters from 
the Bishop remained to see the light among the valuable Morri- 
son collection published of late years as the ‘‘ Hamilton and 
Nelson Papers.’’ From these, readers can not only judge 
how baseless is the insinuation to which we have already alluded, 
but can also plainly see that the Bishop’s friendly intercourse 
with Lady Hamilton came under the eye and approval of her 
husband ; and we may be sure that the pilfered letters did so 
also, these, as regards date, dovetailing in with the rest of 
the letters. 

To readers of these pages the Bishop’s messages to ‘‘ dearest 
Emma” when writing to Sir William Hamilton will appear 
in accordance with his customary style. Just as to Strange 
he had expressed his devotion to Mrs. Strange—‘“‘ dearest 
Madame Montaigne ’’—so throughout his life it was his habit 
to commission husbands with affectionate messages to their 
wives—addressed familiarly as ‘‘ dearest Emma,” “ dearest 
Letitia,’ “dearest Fanny,” etc., as the case might be. The 
husbands in all such instances certainly acquiesced in, and 
probably were flattered by such attentions to their wives, while 
all three of the parties concerned were equally in good humour 
with their mutual relations. 

Thus, after Hamilton’s marriage, the Bishop was as welcome 
as he had been before it to “ the little cabin at Caserta ’’? when- 


470 The Earl Bishop 


ever he liked to come over there from his lodgings at Naples 
for a week at a time. 

The following undated letter (now among the Egerton MSS.., 
British Museum) from the Bishop to Lady Hamilton by its allu- 
sion to the fall of Warsaw, which occurred on November 8, 1794, 
may be placed in our chronology soon after his arrival at Naples, 
while allowing a sufficient interval for the news to have reached 
him there. It will be observed that Lady Hamilton at her 
country house, Caserta, had evidently forwarded to the Bishop, 
at Naples, a letter she had received containing flattering mention 
of him. Most likely it was one of the innumerable little billets 
from the Queen to Lady Hamilton (now among the Egerton 
MSS., British Museum), in many of which, written during the 
Bishop’s visit to Naples, may be found complimentary messages 
to the Bishop (‘‘ce cher bon et bien faisant évéque ’’—as the 
Queen herself calls him in one of them). 

“J return the enclosed, my dearest Emma,” writes the 
Bishop, ‘‘ which does honour to the excellent head and heart 
of the writer. I shall begin, for the first time in my life, to 
have a good opinion of myself after such honourable testimonials. 

‘In the meantime I send you an extraordinary piece of 
news, just written me from Ratisbon—a courier from the 
Elector of Mentz (Mayence) desiring the Empire to make a 
separate peace with France. 

‘“““ Couriers have been sent from the Diet—Sweden and Den- 
mark desire their mediation,’ says my letter. Somebody is 
at the bottom of all this, the Elector of Mentz only lends his 
name. 

““The suburbs of Warsaw taken ; the capitulation of the 
city daily expected.* The King of Prussia totally retired 
beyond Potsdam and supposed to be at the eve of madness.’ 

‘“Oh Emma, who’d ever be wise, 

If madness be loving of thee? B.” 


In a well-known letter from Lady Hamilton to Charles 
Greville, dated from Caserta, December 18, 1794 (“‘ Hamilton 
and Nelson Papers’”’ Vol. I., letter 250), in which she eulogizes 
the Queen of Naples and says, “in short if I was her daughter 
she could not be kinder, & I love her with my own whole soul,” 
she adds some news of the Bishop: ‘“ Lord Bristol is with us 
at Caserta. He passes one week at Naples and one week with 
us. Heisvery fond of me & very kind. He is very entertaining 

* “The progress of Suvaroff had been rapid and decisive as that of Frederick 


William IT. of Prussia had been dilatory and ineffective.’”’ ‘‘ The Cambridge Modern 
History,” VIII., page 547. 


la ae? i ee i a ee we Sa 


The Earl Bishop 4.71 


and dashes at everything. Nor does he mind King & Queen 
when he is inclined to show his talents.”’ 


On the new year of 1795 the Bishop wrote—(“ Letters of 
Lord Nelson,’ 1814 (pilfered) } : 


“My EVER DEAREST Lapy Hamitton,—I should certainly 
have made this Sunday an holyday to me, & have taken a 
Sabbath Day’s journey to Caserta, had not poor Mr. Lovell 
been confined to his bed above three days with a fever. Today 
it is departed ; tomorrow Dr. Nudi has secured us from its 
resurrection ; and after tomorrow I hope virtue will be its own 
reward & that my friendship for Lovell will be recompensed 
with enjoyment. 

“This moment I receive your billet doux, & very dulcet 
it is! 

“All public and private accounts agree in the immediate 
prospect of a general peace. It will make a delicious fore- 
ground in the picture of the new year ; many of which I wish, 
from the top, bottom, & centre of my heart to the incomparable 
EKmma—quella senza paragone! Dans ce moment on m’assure 
que Mayence est prise.* Jenevous guarantis pas cette maudite 
nouvelle—mais je me flatte que la paix se fait.” 


The Bishop’s news was doubtless passed on at once by Lady 
Hamilton to the Queen. 

During this winter the Bishop was frequently in the society 
of the Queen. In one of her notes to her ‘“chére milady,”’ 
the Queen invites Lady Hamilton to bring the Bishop with 
her alone ; in another she is to come with or without him as 
she may prefer: ‘“‘si vous voulez venir aujourd’hui aprés 
votre diner me voir en compagnie de votre Mary (mari), et 
de l’Evéque, ou seule, comme vous le préférez.”’ 

The three are frequently mentioned together in these notes— 
husband, wife and Bishop ; “ continuez moi Tous (1.e. all three) 
votre chére amitié, et contez sur toute la mienne-Charlotte.”’ 
In this same note a postscript is intended for the Bishop himself : 
“Bon soir mon cher Evéque, ne m’oubliez point.’’+ One sees 
by it the intimacy and good humour of the little party. 

The following undated letters from the Bishop to Lady 
Hamilton seem to belong to this winter of 1795: “Send 
me word, dearest Emma, how the invaluable adorable Queen 


* This allusion supplies the approximate date of the letter which is undated: it was 
the new year of 1795. 


+ Egerton MSS., 1615 (British Museum). 


472 The Earl Bishop 


finds herself. The weather changed so unmercifully yesterday 
that Lovell & I both grew ill; & this makes me the more anxious 
to hear of our too sensible* & inestimable Queen. 

‘““My warmest wishes-—physical, political & moral—ever 
atrend sen ie) 


‘“Here is my cousin’s answer, Dearest Emma: ‘Io la 
capisco’—-Her Brother assured me there is not the semblance of 
an insurrection, and that our dear, dear, Queen is misled by a 
set of scoundrels. Send me word where you will be. 

“Yesterday we dined on Mount Vesuvius ; today we were 
to have dined on its victim Pompeii; but, by the grace of God 
which passeth all understanding, since Bartolomeo himself, 
that weather soothsayer, did not foresee this British weather, 
we are prevented. 

‘‘In the meantime, all this week and the next, is replete 
with projects to Ischia, Procyta, &c., so God only knows when 
I can worship again my Diana of Ephesus— 

‘Write me word explicitly how you are, what you are, & 
where you are; & be sure, that wheresoever I am, still I am 
yours, My dearest Emma.”’ 


The allusion to Diana of Ephesus, “so indecently coupled 
with an Apostolic blessing,’? comments the anonymous writer 
of “Memoirs of Lady Hamilton’’ (published in her lifetime), 
has reference to the part of Diana which was personated by her 
Ladyship with great effect, and of which there is an engraving 
executed at Naples after a picture painted by the order of her 
husband. “ Yet the Bishop,” continues this censorious though 
prurient writer, ‘‘ was not altogether blind to the improprieties 
of his dearest connexions at this period; for being one day 
at Sir William Hamilton’s and engaged in conversation with 
Emma, a lady was announced of a character so notorious that 
his Lordship instantly took up his hat and prepared to depart. 
‘Why, my lord, you are not going, are you?’ said Lady 
Hamilton. ‘Our company is not I hope disagreeable ;’ to 
this he replied: ‘It is permitted to a bishop to visit one 
sinner ; but quite unfitting that he should be seen in a brothel.’ ”’ 

In the society which the Bishop met at the English Embassy 
in this winter of 1794-1795 was the young Prince Augustus 
(afterwards Duke of Sussex), who made Naples his headquarters 
at this time and was much féted there. Barely twenty-one, his 
marriage to Lady Augustus, daughter to the Earl of Dunmore, 


* T.e., ‘‘ sensitive.”’ 


The Earl Bishop 478 


had already been annulled in accordance with the provisions 
of the Royal Marriage Act. The Queen of Naples, who was very 
civil to him, described him as ‘a good young man whose light- 
headedness (éfourderte) and inexperience make him’ unfor- 
Renate. © (in*a letter) to the. Marquis de Gallo; dated 
December 23, 1794. Correspondance inédite de Maria Carolina 
(Weil).) 

The Prince was extremely fond of music, and still more so 
of hearing himself sing in society, fancying he had a beautiful 
voice, which was far from the case. He was consequently 
somewhat of a nuisance to his audience, though flatterers 
applauded his singing. The Bishop, however, was not one of 
these, as appears from the following story. 

The celebrated Mrs. Billington, the greatest English singer 
of her day, had resided at Naples for some time, frequently 
singing at Lady Hamilton’s parties. ‘‘ One evening,’ it is 
related, ‘“‘ there was a splendid party at his Excellency’s house, 
and among the rest Mrs. Billington with several other persons 
of eminence in musical science. The treat afforded by such a 
combination of taste and talent was of course very great, but 
in some of the finest airs the young Prince marred the music 
by interposing his own powers with the design of helping those 
who would have been better pleased at his silence. The Bishop 
of Derry, who was naturally impatient, endured all this for some 
time with only muttering now and then a peevish pish or two ; 
but at length the interruptions became so annoying that he 
could contain himself no longer, and turning to the royal singer, 
said: ‘Pray cease, you have the ears of an ass.’ This coarse 
censure, however, produced no other effect than to stimulate 
the performer to fresh exertions, and he also ventured to sing 
one or two songs for the entertainment of the company, all of 
whom with the exception of the Bishop affected to be un- 
commonly delighted.* His lordship, instead of joining in the 
praises that were bestowed, and scorning to bestow a compli- 
ment at the expense of his veracity, said to a lady who sat next 
to him loud enough to be heard by everyone in the circle, 
‘this may be very fine braying but it is intolerable singing.’ ” 

* Memoirs of Lady Hamilton, with anecdotes of her friends and contemporaries. In 
Long’s modern edition the name is erroneously given as that of William Henry Duke of 
Gloucester, brother of George III., now an elderly man. Probably the editor intended 
the Duke’s son, the second Duke of Gloucester, but that young man was not at Naples. 
Mrs. French, who knew the Duke of Sussex when a young man, said of him: ‘‘ His vanity 
is so undisguised, that it wears the form of frankness and therefore gives no disgust. I 
mentioned to him that I had heard of his excellence in singing and he agreed that he pos- 
sessed it without hesitation, adding, ‘ I had the most wonderful voice that ever was heard 
—three octaves—and I do understand music. I practised eight hours a day in Italy. 


One may boast ofa voice, as it is a gift of nature.’’’ (Royal Dukes and Princesses: Percy 
Fitzgerald.) 


AT 4 The Earl Bishop 


Countess Lichtenau* (Madame Rietz) says, alluding to this 
incident in a sort of apology for her friend the Bishop : ‘“ Bristol 
in his jokes was wont to affect English coarseness rather than 
Gallic nicety.”’ She pays a tribute to the young Prince’s 
good sense in taking no offence, and it is evident that he 
remained on friendly terms with the outspoken Bishop. 

Another anecdote of the Bishop at Naples may be introduced 
here as being (despite an obvious jumble and certain inexacti- 
tudes, attributable either to the chronic deafness of the narrator, 
Sir William Hotham, or to the irresponsible nature of Neapoli- 
tan gossip) highly characteristic of the Bishop’s bluff freedom 
of speech and disregard of exalted rank : 

‘“T remember,” says Sir William, “‘a curious anecdote of 
his Sicilian Majestyt and the Earl of Bessborough, Bishop of 
Derry, who had a daughter to whom the King appears to have 
paid marked attention and whom he very much admired. 
The King, in course of conversation, very earnestly strove 
to vindicate himself from the charge sometimes preferred against 
him of inattention to public affairs. He said that he always 
heard Mass, and, having done so, signed his public papers 
and transacted business with his Ministers, and that then he 
considered he had a right to unbend, and hunt and shoot, or 
in any way follow his own amusement. ‘ Yes,’ said the Bishop 
curtly, ‘and so in other matters your Majesty distinguishes 
between public duty and private pleasure. You first, asa duty, 
wed her Majesty, and then for your pleasure make love to my 


| 


a 
; 


- a 


daughter!’’’ The King, as may readily be believed, never had ) 


him invited to the Royal presence afterwards. ‘‘ This story is 
the less unlikely,” continues Hotham, “ when it is remembered 
that the same prelate threw some refuse from his bedchamber 
window at Siena upon the Host as it passed, and narrowly 


escaped forfeiting his life to the just fury of the mob.” (“‘ Pages © 


and Portraits from the Past,’ Vol. II., page 142; “ Private 
Papers of Sir Wiliam Hotham,” by A. M. Stirling.) 


The above incident, or whatever of truth underlies it, must 
be placed in 1795, as Sir William Hotham visited Naples that 


* Countess Lichtenau records that the Bishop said this to herself; and it appears, 
therefore, that this part of the story refers to a different occasion to that connected with 
Mrs. Billington, two incidents being strung together in the above narration, whereas a 
year’s interval had in fact occurred between them. For Mrs. Billington resided at Naples 
in 1795, but had left in 1796, while Countess Lichtenau was never at Naples till 1796. 
Prince Augustus and the Bishop, however, spent the winters of both years in Naples, during 
which time the Prince would have had opportunity of repeating his braying in successive 
years—undaunted by the snubs of the Bishop. 


} Ferdinand, King of Naples and the Two Sicilies. 


The Earl Bishop AVS 


year after the Bishop’s departure, and presumably there heard 
the story bandied about ; but he evidently did not jot it down 
till many years had elapsed, as is shown by his allusions to the 
Bishop’s adventure at Siena, which occurred long afterwards. 
Hotham’s jumble in calling the Bishop Lord ‘“ Bessborough ”’ 
shows he had no personal acquaintance with the Bishop, who 
was everywhere known as Lord Bristol. Moreover, it suggests 
suspicion as to the accuracy of other items in the story. With 
regard to the King making love to the Bishop’s daughter, I find 
no trace or likelihood of any of the Bishop’s daughters being at 
Naples with him at any time in 1795 or 1796. It is possible, 
however, that the fascinating Lady Elizabeth may have been 
at Naples and have left before the Bishop arrived on the scene. 
Again, with regard to the King’s taking offence, if he did so, 
it could not have been for long. Certainly the Bishop was 
well received at Court to the very end of his visits to 
Naples in successive years and remained persona gratissima 
with the Queen, and it may be pointed out that the incident 
could not have occurred at a later time, for when the Bishop 
visited Naples many years afterwards the Court had fled to 
Palermo. 

The conspiracy of Don Luigi de’ Medici caused profound 
sensation and alarm at Naples in February of 1795. The Bishop 
writes thence to Lady Hamilton at Caserta (Supplement to 
Letters of Lord Nelson, 1814) : 


“There is no doubt that Don Luigi is implicated ; that very 
circumstance argues the extent of the mischief ; for so cautious 
a man, & one whose sentiments are so publicly known would 
not engage without good support. I have conversed with one 
of his intimates—one who is no stranger to his dearest secret. 
The evidence will be difficult, perhaps impracticable, unless his 
most confidential friends can be gained; & that I fear is im- 
possible. 

‘“ But the character of the Garrison at Capua is of the most 
alarming complexion, & yet is what I can best depend on. I 
think Wade could tell much if he would speak out. Adieu! 
Lovell & I were on Vesuvius. He goes, like a true parson, only 
to eat the better. I foresee he will once more fall into Nud1’s 
hands. Procyta will be another Duo ; for I hate large parties 
on such, & especially females—unless they are Phcenixes, like 
yourself. It is a great discouragement to a Caserta party to 
view the whole town buried in a mist ; and the Belvedere alone, 
like a buoy, to point out the shoal. Sweet Emma adieu. Every 
wish of my heart beats for the dear Queen.” 


4.76 The Earl Bishop 


se 


The Queen was now in a situation of grave difficulty and — 
danger. Whatever her faults as a ruler or as a woman, her 


hatred of the French who had murdered their Queen, her sister, 
was but natural; and she beheld with horror the importation 
of the new Jacobinism from France among her husband’s sub- 
jects. But to combat it, the only resources known to her were 
suppression and punishment. Thus, under the system of 
tyranny which she encouraged, treachery and conspiracy 


spread, and even men like Luigi de’ Medici, who had enjoyed her | 


favour and confidence, lent themselves to secret connivance 
with her enemies. 

If we are to look for any cause beneath the surface in the 
Bishop’s throwing himself with ardour into the interests of the 
Queen of Naples, it may be found in her friendly attitude 
towards England, and in the Bishop’s own detestation of the 
political developments in France, and his alarm at the spread 
of French invasion in the north of Italy. In fact his feeling 
of hostility, political and personal, to the new France grew to 
an obsession, colouring the whole trend of his ideas and move- 
ments in his latter years. 


CHAPTER XLVIII 
1795 (continued) 


[ie Bishop remains at Naples throughout March, 1795. 
A letter of his which we are about to produce must, 
therefore, by the date of it have been written there. It shows 
that despite his manifold Continental distractions, he kept in 
touch with his diocese and took a keen interest in the dispensa- 
tion of his Irish patronage. This letter, now in the possession 
of his great-grandson, the Rev. Sydenham Hervey, is addressed 
to a young Irish Clergyman, Newburg or Newburgh Burroughs, 
whose father, the Rev. Doctor Lewis Burroughs, had formerly 
been Archdeacon of Derry, and the Bishop now bestowed the 
same office on the son. It may be here explained, by way of 
preface to the letter, that the Bishop was very intimate with the 
children of the late Archdeacon, who had now been dead some 
nine years, and they lived at Bellaghy, near Ballyscullion ; 
and as interest attaches to the earlier stages of this intimacy 
we may here turn to trace it in the Memoirs of Lord Charle- 
mont, where we find the following story told as characteristic 
of the Bishop’s impulsive and sometimes eccentric generosity. 
The incident related seems to have occurred before Newburgh 
Burroughs had been ordained : 


‘Mr. Burroughs,” says Charlemont, “son to an Archdeacon 
of Derry who had been an intimate friend of the Bishop, being 
engaged in a lawsuit for his wife’s estate, on the event of which 
his all depended, and being unfortunately deficient in those 
means, by which, to the disgrace of the law, even Justice must 
be bought, was supplied by the Bishop with 500 pounds towards 
bringing this suit to an issue. The trial approached, and his 
Lordship desired to be informed by express of the decision, 
which was unfavourable to Burroughs.* The express returned 

* The elder Burroughs was succeeded in the Archdeaconry on his death in 1786 by 


Archdeacon Soden. He resigned in 1795, being bankrupt and heavily in debt to the 
Bishop. The younger Burroughs was thereupon appointed to succeed him. 


VOL, IL 477 on) 


478 The Earl Bishop 


with a letter from the Bishop, informing his protégé that fearful 
of what had happened, he had kept in his hands a very consider- 
able benefice which he had now given to Burroughs’ brother, 
well knowing from the fraternal affection existing between them, 
that it was in effect given to him, at the same time desiring him 
to send his wife and family to Downhill, where they might live 
as long as might be convenient to them. And here I cannot 
avoid mentioning a circumstance which tends to show that in 
this strange man generosity itself assumed the appearance of 
whim. The lady, with her family, settled at Downhill, but 
Mrs. Burroughs, unwilling to tease the Bishop with a sucking 
child, had, unknown to his Lordship, lodged her youngest infant 
at a neighbouring village whither she sometimes went to see 
the child. Her visits were discovered by the Bishop, who 
after some kind reproaches consented that the child should 
not now be removed ; but to facilitate her intercourse, which 
was rendered somewhat inconvenient by the badness of the 
road, a hundred labourers, by his order, in the course of one day, 
converted a rough and narrow lane into a fine spacious 
road.,”’ 


Many years had elapsed since the incident, when the Bishop 
wrote the following letter from Naples: 


“March 26, ’95. 


““ DEAREST NEWBURG, as this goes by a King’s Messenger, I 
hope it will arrive in time to decide yr acceptance of the Arch- 
deaconry with the amputation of £83 for Curate. In that case 
I pledge myself to pay one half the salary until I annex 
the office of Vicar General to the Archdeaconry, which was 
always my project. I pledge myself also to raise your tithes 
on the Church lands from £128 to £140 and to become the tenant 
of them at that Rate for 21 years or during your incumbency : 
& even not to appoint a curate until the Chapel & Glebe house 
be completely built. Tell Mr. Sandys* that I highly approve 
his drawing for the Iron rails of staircase, but that in order to 
save expense | apprehend they ought to be of Cast Iron and 
gilt afterwards. Could they be of Cast Copper they would 
look infinitely richer, as I have witness in the Royal Staircase 
at Brussels. 


* There were two brothers of the name of Sandys, both in the employment of the 
Bishop and imported by him from Ireland into Suffolk. Francis Sandys was the Architect 
of Ickworth, and the Revd. Joseph Sandys was a sort of Clerk of the Works. The latter 
was married to Frances, sister of Newburgh Burroughs. The Bishop styled her ‘‘ dearest 
Fanny.’ She and her husband resided at Ickworth at this time, their children being 
baptized there. The register describes the parents as “of Kilrea in the Kingdom of 
Ireland.” Whether the staircase was for Ickworth or Ballyscullion is not clear. 


The Earl Bishop 479 


“As to Dearest indefatigable Mary Anne* give my love to 
her and assure her how highly I approve all her proposals about 
Beds, Bolsters & Pillows, but that the sudden departure of a 
King’s messenger does not leave me time to particularise. In 
short I hope ardently you may remove to the Archdeaconry, for 
I will leave no stone unturned to augment its income, especially 
if I purchase any part of Mr. Jackson’s Estate. Yours most 
affect. BRISTOL.”’ 

“ Rev. Mr. Newburg Burroughs.” 

Newburgh Burroughs was duly collated to the Archdeaconry 
of Derry, and we now take leave of him for two years, and when 
we find him next travelling with the Bishop he is no more 
“ dearest Newburg” but “ Sir.” 

Within a month of writing the above letter the Bishop left 
Naples—to return there the next winter. Before his departure, 
_ the Queen, in a note to Lady Hamilton, of date April, 1795 
(Egerton MSS., 1617, British Museum), sends a message of 
farewell to the Bishop: ‘‘ mes complimens au cher milord évéque, 
gui bien m’a obligé par son cour.”’ 

The Bishop now moved northwards on his way to Germany. 
In June he was at Bologna, where he wrote the following letter 
to his agent at Downhill. It is one of many proofs of the 
superintendence which he kept up over his Irish dependents 
and property. 

The letter is addressed to ‘“‘ Mr. Robert Dallas, Downhill, 
Coleraine, Ireland—France by Mantova”’ : 


‘“ Bologna, 
Sim igad tied tbeatermipelal: 

“ Robert Dallas, I desire you would immediately carry the 
enclosed letter to Mr. G. & inform me of his answer. The letter 
contains an order to prosecute Mr. Dick, the stone-cutter as a 
defaulter in having received the whole money for the Spire of 
Dunbar & not yet having begun it. As no one knows better 
than yr self the malconduct of this miscreant, I have appointed 
you to deliver the letter that you may by return of Post deliver 
me his answer. At the same time I shall be glad to know the 
state of my trees, my walks & Allen’s Glen at Downhill which I 
- should have visited this Autumn but for this unfortunate War, 
being now as well & as stout as ever I was in my lite, & very 
impatient to revisit my dearest Downhill. I hope my tenants 
have not suffered by any rigour of the Season, & insist upon it 

* T think ‘‘ dearest Mary Anne” was Miss Burroughs, daughter of the former Arch- 


deacon and sister of the new one. She and her mother were guests of the Bishop at Down- 
hill in past years. 


VOL. II. to* 


480 The Earl Bishop 


that you give me early notice of any such calamity—I cannot 
upon any account consent to your sleeping out of my house any 
more after the accident of the Gallery. BrisTot.’’* 

The Bishop’s expression of his affection for Downhill and 
of his hope of returning there was probably sincere. But his 
cosmopolitan preoccupations were henceforth to incline him 
farther and farther from a return to his native country, leading 
him into a long train of vain designs in which he became totally 
immersed. 

From Bologna the Bishop passed to Verona, where he en- 
countered the throneless Louis XVIII. of France; and pro- 
ceeded to Munich. Thence he dispatched a letter of news to 
Lady Hamilton : 


“ Munich, 
“14 July, 1795. 
‘“ DEAREST EMMA, 

‘Here is great news from England. My letters 
of the 26th June assure me, seven thousand men are embarked 
for St. Pol de Léon, together with a number of émigrés—that, 
the week before, a bishop, & sixty priests were most prosper- 
ously landed at the same place, and received with the greatest 
acclamations—that six sail of the line from Russia were in 
sight, & the pilots gone to conduct them—that in Amsterdam, 
& other towns of Holland, there is the greatest insurrection in 
favour of that fool the Stadtholder. All this, however, can only 
tend to facilitate peace, but not at all to restore that despicable, 
odious family of Bourbons—the head of which is now at Verona, 
where we left him eating two capons a day ; (tis a pity the whole 
family are not capons :) and, what is more, dressing them 
himself in a superb kitchen—the true chapel of a Bourbon 
Prince. Emma! if that dear Queen of Naples does not write 
herself to Prince d’Oria (Doria) for me, I won’t look at your 
beautiful face these six months—‘ Cotite que cotite.’ 

“To-morrow for Pyrmont near Hanover. Emma—adieu ! ”’ 


The author of the ‘‘ Memoirs of Lady Hamilton, with Anec- 
dotes of Her Friends ’’—written in 1815 at a time when Lady 
Hamilton had fallen into adversity and when the Bishop had 
long been in his grave—exclaims in virtuous indignation with 
reference to the ‘Count Bishop’s”’ effusions quoted above: 
‘ After the cruel reflection on the present amiable sovereign of 
France who could have expected to see in the same letter such 


* This letter is now in the possession of Geraldine, Marchioness of Bristol, and pub- 
lished by her permission. } 


The Earl Bishop 481 


> 


fulsome compliments . Alluding to the Bishop’s praise 
of the Queen of Naples—“ the modern Messalina,’ as our 
author is pleased to call her—he sententiously proceeds : 
“ Disgusting as these extracts must be to every mind where the 
sense of honour & the love of virtue continue to predominate, 
they are yet not without their uses, particularly as they serve 
to show the pernicious consequences that always result to those 
who abandon the station in which they are placed for a lite of 
greater freedom. i 

Without emulating the writer either in “ disgusting ”’ readers 
or improving the occasion, our chronicles now lead us to follow 
the Count Bishop in a new course of ‘‘ freedom”? which may be 
thought to do his memory little credit. 

This new course may be said to have been entered upon 
during the Bishop’s sojourn at Munich in the summer of 1795, 
for it was there that he fell in with Madame Ritz (later Countess 
Lichtenau), mistress of King Frederick William II. of Prussia, 
and started an outrageous flirtation with her, one object of it— 
it may be assumed—being to gain insight into the inner circles 
of Prussia and thus acquire influence in the field of Continental 
diplomacy ; although of course no trace of any such design is 
apparent in his correspondence with the lady. 

The following, the first of a series of effusive letters addressed 
to this lady and published by her in her “ Apologie,”* was 
evidently written at Munich in July, 1795, shortly before his 
departure. By this time the acquaintance, so lately begun, 
had rapidly grown to a lively intimacy. 


‘“Chére amie, Si le temps fait beau demain, rendez-le moi 
encore plus beau par votre chére et payable compagnie au lac de 
Storemberg, On dit que c’est tout ce-qu’il y’a de plus joli dans 
les environs de Munich, et vous qui aimez tant les tableaux, 
vous ne devriez pas négliger un Tableau fait par la main de la 
nature,—ce peintre a qui vous étes redevable de tant de graces, 


\ 


de tant d’attraits, que la téte tourne a quiconque a la hardiesse 
de les contempler. 
“ Chére amie, ne me refusez pas la premiére grace que }’al 


* “ Countess Lichtenau’s Apologie”’ (French translation) (not to be confounded with 
a book of spurious memoirs). Absurdly enough the genuineness of this series of letters of 
the Bishop published by Countess Lichtenau (Madame Ritz) has been disputed by a 
modern writer (Turquan, ‘‘ A Great Adventuress” (i.e., Lady Hamilton), Vol. I., page 
262) onthe ground that Lord Bristol (the Bishop) addresses Countess Lichtenau in the 
second person singular, ‘‘ which is not customary in English ”’*_a poor compliment to 
the Bishop’s familiarity both with the French language and with the fair sex. Those, 
however, who are acquainted with the Bishop’s habitually warm and irresponsible style 
of letter-writing will, on the contrary, easily recognize his peculiar characteristics through 


the whole of this correspondence. 


482 The Earl Bishop 


le courage de vous demander, et que je voudrais bien avoir 
occasion de vous restituer. En cas que ce petit voyage soit 
impracticable, donnez-moi de vos chéres nouvelles, poste- 
restante 4 Hanovre, et comptez parmi ceux qui vous sont le 
plus dévoués Le Comte de Bristol.’ 


The extraordinary association of the Bishop and _ the 
courtesan—there is no reason to suspect it of being more—was 
to last some two years, and its history will cover several chapters. 
Here it will be merely noted that, after its opening stage at 
Munich, its further development was interrupted by the lady’s 
continuing her travels southward to Italy while the Bishop 
moved northwards via Hanover to Pyrmont on his way to 
Berlin. 

Meanwhile we may turn to catch a pleasant, and rather 
unexpected, glimpse of him amiably corresponding with his 
family in England. Letters no longer existing which he wrote 
from Pyrmont at this time to his brother, and to his daughters, 
Lady Erne and Lady Louisa, now married to Mr. Jenkinson, 
who a year later was to become Lord Hawkesbury on his father 
being created Earl of Liverpool,* are referred to in the Journals 
of William Hervey as follows : . 


“ Oct. 7, Wednesday (1795 Ickworth). 


“Sister Bf received a letter this morning from Lou, men- 
tioning that she had one from B.B.{ wherein he mentions mine 
to him of 15th August, as prudent, temperate and affectionate. 

, Oct. 8, Thursday. I received from B.B. two letters or 
Ig & 20 Sept. from Pyrmont, mentioning mine to him of 14 
August as written in all the calm lights of mild philosophy. — 

“Oct. 11, Sunday. Received another from B.B. dated 27 
Sept. inclosing a blank note of attorney. 

"Oct. 13, Tuesday. Received a 4th from B.B.” In’ ime 
letter to Lady Erne he mentions my letter of 14 Aug. as very 
affectionate, friendly & pathetic, over which, albeit unused to 
the melting mood, he could almost have wept.”’ 


From Pyrmont, his favourite health resort, where he spent 
a month and more, the Bishop proceeded to Berlin. There it 
was that he began to establish the footing of intimacy which he 


* The marriage had taken place on March 25, 1795. Robert Bankes Jenkinson, Lord 
Hawkesbury, became eventually second Earl of Liverpool, and was First Lord of the 
Treasury from 1812 to 1827. 

+ Lady Bristol. 

{ Brother Bristol. 





Louisa Theodosia, Countess of Liverpool, third daughter of fourth 
Barlotbristoleme irs! 72053 second barliclliverpoOu, was ullemlo2 I. 


By George Romney, 1790-92. Portrait at Ickworth. 


[To face page 482. 





The Earl Bishop 483 


maintained during the two following years in the entourage of 
Frederick William II. The rapid advance he had made in the 
good graces of Madame Ritz when he met her at Munich, 
doubtless ensured him a warm reception at Berlin by the King— 
“le gros Jules’’—as Catherine of Russia nicknamed him ; 
while in the absence of the Favourite herself on her travels, the 
Bishop kept up a lively correspondence with her. 

Soon after his arrival at Berlin he wrote, on the 31st October, 
1795, to Lady Hamilton (Mr. Sichel’s ‘‘ Emma Lady Hamilton,” 
page 141) some curious items of political news to be transmitted 
to the Queen of Naples while boldly soliciting the exertion of 
the Queen’s influence with her brother the Emperor : 


‘The poor Austrian General* had no orders, no permission 
from that execrable Council of War at Vienna, one halt of which 
are publicly known to be sold to the National Convention. 
Lord Longford and his pedantic friend Mr. Knoll are just 
arrived from Vienna-they assure me nothing can be more 
notorious or more publickly talked about than the Venality 
of the Council of War. Dearest Emma tell our dear inestimable 
Queen from me that unless she has weight enough to get that 
infamous Council of War absolutely suppressed, annihilated, 
tis impossible that a General can either sezze his advantage or 
pursue it.’’ 


It was perhaps to this and similar letters that the Queen 
of Naples in one of her undated billets to Lady Hamilton alludes 
with some caution : 


“Te vous renvoie les lettres de Milord Bristol. C’est un 
home (sic) que je crois, malgré sa téte, capable d’attachement.”’ 

A story characteristic of the Bishop relates to this visit at 
Berlin. It is said that being present at a great dinner given by 
the King of Prussia to the Duke of Brunswick, the Bishop 
showed ‘“ uncommon freedom of speech ’”’ in a remark which he 
made to the King before all the guests. The Bishop was 
strongly opposed to the Treaty which his Prussian Majesty 
not long before had concluded with the French Government, 
involving the neutrality of Prussia, by which she forsook the 
Allies. Being offered some capon the Bishop declined it, on 


* The celebrated General Count Wurmser, born in 1741. After alternate successes 
and defeats he beat the French near Mannheim on October 29,1795. In 1796 he was 
appointed to command the Italian army. We shall find him in communication with the 
Bishop at that time. 


~ Egerton MSS., 1617. 


4.8.4 The Earl Bishop 


which the King asked him if he disliked the dish. ‘‘ Yes, Sire,”’ 
replied the Bishop, “‘ I have an aversion to all Neutrals.’’* 


* Frederick William II. after two years of military operations, in which the Prussians 
took but little part, had signed April 5th, 1795, the treaty of Bale, by which Prussia sur- 
rendered to France all the possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, while Germany on 
the North was declared neuival—to the disgust of the Bishop, and contrary to the policy 
of England. 

The above story has been variously told. Chalmers’ Biographical Dictionary places 
the incident at Pyrmont two years later (1797), at a dinner given by the King of Prussia 
to the Prince Royal of Denmark. According to this account the Bishop “ boldly said, 
after the conversation about the active ambition of England had been changed into en- 
quiries about the delicacy of a roasted capon, that he did not like neutral animals let 
them be ever so delicate.’”” It may well have been that the Bishop made the same mot 
on both occasions, repeating himself ike many another wit. 


CHAPTER XLIX 
1795 (continued) 


HE Bishop’s association and correspondence with Wilhel- 
mine Encke, alias Madame Ritz, alias Countess Lich- 
tenau, became so marked a feature of his life from 1795 to 
1797 that reference to her past career is inevitable. The 
relations of ‘‘ Minchen”’ Encke (as she was familiarly nick- 
named) with the King had begun some twenty years earlier, 
when she was a very young girl and when he was Prince of 
Prussia and heir-presumptive to his uncle, Frederick the 
Great. She was the daughter of a humble musician.* The 
Prince, struck by her simplicity and her intelligence, caused her 
to be educated by accomplished masters, and she soon showed 
a great interest in art, and a desire to improve herself in know- 
ledge. Two children were born to her connection with the 
Prince. They were styled Count Alexander and Countess 
Mariana von der Mark (or de la Marche), and when the Prince 
became King were treated as semi-royal. The boy was adored 
by his father and was said to be the only human being who 
could rouse him from his habitual apathy. On the child’s 
premature death the King was inconsolable. Countess Mariana 
thereafter took the place which her brother had held, remaining 
always near the King and being more favoured than any other 
of his numerous children. 

The relations of Wilhelmina Encke with the King, she tells 
us, did not continue. She had, in fact, to give way to a long 
succession of rivals, who in time, however, were removed by 
death or other causes. Meanwhile she retained the King’s 
friendship. She was, at his wish, nominally married to one 
Ritz, a personal attendant on the King, a man of low origin, 
who acquired a back-stair influence which made him one of the 
most important personages about the Court. The marriage was 


* A scandalous pamphlet maliciously published on her imprisonment besmirches her 
mother’s character, and her own, in childhood and youth. It is entitled ‘‘ Geheime Papiere 
der Grafin Von Lichtenau (Vulgo Minchen Encke), Charlottenburg im Rietzischen Schlosse, 
1798.” 


485 


486 The Earl Bishop 


not a legal one, as it was celebrated merely according to the rites 
of the Illuminati—a sect in vogue at the Court of Frederick 
Wilham IT. 

Madame Ritz is described as of classic beauty and splendid 
physique ; accomplished and cultivated, brilliant in conver- 
sation, and withal good-humoured and conciliatory. She 
is said to have been so fascinating that no man could resist 
her. As the King became middle-aged, she regained her 
ascendancy, and—like another Pompadour—without jealousy 
of women younger than herself, she provided for the indolent 
King’s pleasures, and became so indispensable to his comfort 
that she acquired complete sway over him. Thus it came to 
pass that her influence was solicited by state officials and by 
- foreign envoys. : 

When she accompanied the King to the war against France, 
she was consulted by Generals in the field. When the Peace of 
Bale was being negotiated, the English Ambassador, Sir Henry 
Spencer, endeavoured, but without success, to induce her to 
break it off in order that Prussia might remain faithful to the 
Coalition, and offered her a large bribe for that end. At the 
time when the Bishop came upon the scene, she was regarded 
as a protectress by the French émigrés, and she professed 
hostility to the French Government, from which attitude it 
would appear that the Bishop had hopes of making use of her 
influence. When the Bishop encountered Madame Ritz at 
Munich she was embarked on a course of travel, accompanied 
by a numerous retinue. Italy was to be her ultimate destina- 
tion, and on the way she was about to visit Lavater, the cele- 
brated physiognomist at Zurich, who afterwards recorded his 
warm admiration of her intellectual accomplishments. The 
story of the origin of her travelling tour and her departure from 
Berlin is a curious one. A crisis in her life had led to the 
realization of a long-cherished wish to travel and see the art- 
treasures of Italy. The rupture of a marriage-engagement had 
provided the opportunity and the excuse for leaving Berlin 
for a time, and under the plea of health-seeking, of the need of 
distraction and of passing the next winter in a southern climate, 
she obtained permission from the King for a year’s absence, 
promising to write to him every day and (in accordance with his 
superstitious beliefs) to search for “‘ the Philosopher’s Stone.” 
The history of her recent entanglement was that a young Irish- 
man, Lord Templetown, some fifteen years younger than 
herself, had ardently fallen in love with her mature charms and 
wished to marry her. Lord Templetown’s mother, by the way, 
appears to have been on friendly terms with Madame Ritz 


The Earl Bishop . 487 


| 


—a letter from Lady Templetown to Madame Ritz (among the 
latter’s correspondence) expressing warm gratitude for kindness 
shown by Madame Ritz in Berlin to the writer’s younger son, 
Arthur Upton, indicates a good understanding between the 
two ladies.* 

Madame Ritz’s illegal marriage with Ritz was evidently 
considered no obstacle to an alliance with Lord Templetown, 
and the King could hardly have objected on the score of bigamy, 
as he himself had had two legal wives at a time, with the full 
approval of Ministers of the Lutheran Church. The King, 
however, refused his consent to the marriage when it was already 
arranged, his Majesty being afraid—so says the gossip ot Vehse, 
historian of German Courts—lest Madame Ritz should follow 
her new suitor over the seas and thus put an end to the friendly 
intercourse which had become a part of the King’s very existence. 
Scandal, indeed, gave another version. The passionate young 
Irishman, it reported, had boxed the ears of the lady, having 
caught her with a lover of much humbler pretensions, after 
which she induced the King to banish his lordship from Berlin, 
and, as a winding up, determined upon solacing herself with 
travelling. (Vehse’s “Court of Prussia.’’) Be that as it may, 
the attachment came to an abrupt conclusion in the spring of 
1795. It was in allusion to this affair, by which it is said the 
lady’s heart had been much affected, that the Bishop is found 
writing to her, advising her to “‘forget un fichu Irlandais,” 
and to replace him by “‘ wn Saint Evéque.” It may be remarked 
here in passing that the Bishop had no liking for the Temple- 
town family, on account of his son Frederick’s attachment to 
Miss Upton, the slenderly-dowered daughter of Lady Temple- 
town and sister of “ le fichu Ivlandats.”’ 

It was during the Bishop’s visit to Berlin in the autumn 
of 1795 that he developed a plan—it had perhaps originated at 
Munich in concert with Madame Ritz—that she should pass the 
coming winter at Naples under his egis, and that she should 
be presented to the Queen of Naples. He was thus to figure 
himself in the circle of two Courts at once, and to establish a 
link, as it were, between Prussia and Naples ; and so, indirectly, 
to forward English policy according to his own ideas against the 
detested French Government.t But there was at the outset, 


* ‘Countess Lichtenau (Madame Ritz’s) Apologie,’’ Vol. II. 

+ The Bishop was not the only Englishman who saw the advantage to England of 
cultivating the Ritz alliance. A few months later Lord Elgin wrote to Lady Grenville 
(Fortescue Papers, at Dropmore, Historigal Commission, Vol. III., page 198): “‘ M. Ritz, 
formerly Valet de Chambre, now Private Treasurer, has very great weight with the King. 
. .. Much benefit would be derived from habitual intercourse with the Society and 
connections of M. Ritz. . . . Many instances might, I am confident, be found in applying 
money to this purpose. 


488 The Earl Bishop 


what might appear, a serious impediment to this charming 
plan ; the Queen of Naples declined to receive Madame Ritz. 
Maria Caroline was not squeamish as to virtue; but no bour- 
geoise could be received at her Court, and, just as she formerly 
would not know Emma Lyon till she became Lady Hamilton, 
so she now would not know plebeian Madame Ritz. The diffi- 
culty could be easily overcome—His Prussian Majesty had 
but to create her a Countess ; she could as easily be released 
from her non-binding alliance with the low-born Ritz, such being 
an impediment to her rising into a higher social sphere. The 
Bishop, on his visit to Berlin, took upon himself to lay the lady’s 
case before the good-natured Monarch while she was pursuing 
her travels in Italy. He had but to explain the urgency of the 
matter. Forthwith a patent of nobility was despatched by his 
Majesty to the ci-devant Madame Ritz at Venice—her brother 
being the conveyor of it; after receiving which she travelled 
thence as Countess Lichtenau (of the Principality of Pyrmont), 
and as such was everywhere received in Italy. It was apparently 
pending these negotiations that the Bishop addressed the 
following letter to the Countess designate at Pisa, whither she 
had gone to drink the waters by the advice of her physician 
before making a détour to Venice. In some anxiety lest, after 
all, his plans for the winter rendezvous should miscarry, he 
wrote : 


“ Berlin, 
“ce 2me Novembre, ’95. 


‘‘ J’apprends ce matin avec le plus grand plaisir que votre 
charmante figure se trouve a Pise, mais avec le plus grand 
déplaisir que vous comptez pour un seul moment me manquer 
de parole, et d’aller vous fourrer dans les marais de Venise, 
au leu de jouir avec moi du paradis terrestre de Naples, 
d’un printemps perpetuel, et du plus beau ciel que la nature ait 
jamais fait, oi vous étes attendue avec la plus grande im- 
patience, ot! je vous aurais suivie avec la plus grand diligence 
et ol nous aurions passé de superbes journées entiéres a entendre 
le divin Paesiello, inimitable Cimarosa, et la Hamilton plus 
quwhumaine. Faites-moi cette infidélité, si vous losez, et 
Apollon avec toutes ses Muses seconderont les malédictions que 
je répandrais sur vous pour m’avoir donné un échantillon de 
votre charmante société, et puis de m’en avoir enlevé la coupe. 
C’est comme si vous faisiez gotiter a diner vos petits patés, et 
puis renvoyiez le bouilli et le réti. Oh fi, ma chére dame, ce 
serait véritablement vilain et indigne de la bonté de votre coeur. 


The Earl Bishop 489 


Savez-vous bien que j’ai passé deux heures ce matin avec de 
vraies délices 4 contempler, votre superbe théAtre, votre élé- 
gant lit, ot il ne manquait que la dormeuse, pour le rendre par- 
fait, et surtout votre magnifique salon ? Tout porte l’empreinte 
du vrai gotit, et rien ne se désire dans ce palais de fée, que la 
présence de sa maitresse. 

“Le Comte de Nesselrode (the eminent diplomatist) qui 
dine aujourd’hui chez moi, me charge de mille compliments de 
sa part. Moi sans ... compliment, mais du vrai fond de 
mon coeur, je fais les voeux les plus ardents, pour votre bien- 
étre, et pour notre réunion 4 Naples. BrRIsTov.”’ 


Although the lady’s dilatory and indirect course of travel 
caused the day of “ reunion ”’ to be long postponed, the Bishop’s 
hopes were not to be disappointed in the end ; and, if she had 
vacillated for a time, the arrival at Venice of her patent of 
nobility made all things smooth for her subsequent journey to 
Naples. 

Leaving for the moment this strangely assorted pair of 
intriguers on their respective travels, a word may be said here 
on the nature of the tie which “‘united’”’ them. Indefensible 
as is the association of a Bishop with a King’s Mistress, the 
honourable light in which Countess Lichtenau—to give her 
henceforth her due style and dignity—herself professed to view 
her elderly admirer should be made clear by her own statement. 
In a preface to the Earl Bishop’s letters to her, published in her 
‘“ Apologie,’’ she refutes some assertions as to his general 
immorality which a certain Herr Seume relates in his book. 
She declares that, while in her opinion he was certainly irre- 
ligious, “‘ Bristol had strong innate principles and that attacks 
on his morals were as unseemly as false. What Bristol may have 
done in his younger days she considered outside the question, 
but she thought it horrible to accuse a man of his age of physical 
love. Far from running after any gvisette, he only became the 
friend of women of culture and position. Even at a distance 
he cherished a tender regard for his family, always providing 
for their well-being. In short he was a capable and tender- 
hearted man, despite many faults and blemishes which his vir- 
tues made one easily forget. The principle which he adhered 
to unfailingly is to be found in one of his own letters: ‘ il 
me faut absolument trouver des malheureux pour en faire des 
heureux. Surely this atones for many faults and failings ! 
After this explanation,’ continues Countess Lichtenau, “‘ it is 
to be hoped that no reader will hesitate carefully to peruse the 
Bristolian letters in spite of Herr Seume ! ” 


490 The Earl Bishop 


The sincerity of this defence of her old friend appears the 
more credible that, when Countess Lichtenau wrote it, he was 
dead, that for some years before his death all communication 
between them had ceased, and that she had no personal object 
in speaking well of him. 


CHAPTER L 


1795-1796 


Ae the Countess Lichtenau, attended by a train of 

artists, savants, and admirers, of whom a certain young 
Chevalier de Saxe was the most ardent, made a leisurely pro- 
gress through Italy, collecting pictures and treasures for which 
her royal protector lavishly paid, the Bishop with his chaplain 
Lovell hastened southwards from Berlin with his “ bottes 
de sept lieues ” to anticipate her arrival at Naples. 

On his way he was encountered at Bologna by Lady Webster, 
then travelling in Lord Holland’s company. An entry in 
her Journal notes under date November, 1795 (‘‘ Lady Hol- 
Jand’s Journal,” Vol. I., page 138): ‘Lord Bristol with 
some wretched dependents came to my inn ; he dined one day 
with me. He is a clever, bad man. He asked me to let him 
have a copy of my picture, the one done by Fagan and belonging 
to my friend Italinski. I hesitated much, and implied without 
giving it,a denial. He told me of Ly. Louisa Hervey’s marriage 
to Mr. Jenkinson a son of Ld. Hawkesbury.” 

The Bishop’s admiration of her portrait did not arise from 
any liking for Lady Webster herself,—so the lady tells us later 
in relating the strange sequel of the episode. It is clear that 
Lady Webster, on her part, disliked the Bishop, if for no other 
reason, on account of his open disrespect for Mr. Fox, the beloved 
uncle of Lord Holland, and the great Whig idol of Holland House. 
In Rome, to her disgust, she saw the sculpture which had been 
executed at the Bishop’s order representing ‘‘ Pitt as the infant 
Hercules strangling the serpents,’ the heads of which are the 
portraits of Mr. Fox and Lord North—the Coalition. “‘ Pitt’s 
head,’ she declared, ‘‘is of the natural size upon the body 
ofaninfant. The whole performance is like some of the uncouth 
decorations in the middle ages of our English Cathedrals. The 
idea was taken from a caricature. The English artists all to a 
man refused to execute this puerile conceit.’’ Sposino, the 


491 


4.92 The Earl Bishop 


Italian sculptor of it, she reprobates as a man “‘ who has made a 
lasting monument of Lord Bristol’s bad taste, and the merit 
of originality is not his.” 

Soon after his arrival at Naples, the Bishop wrote to his 
newly created Prussian Countess. (Countess von Lichtenau’s 
MIA DOLOPIe NV OLM LT.) 


“Ce 29 Decembre, ’95. 

“De grace, chére Comtesse, et adorable amie, ne continuez 
plus a croupir dans la fange de cette malsaine ville de Rome, 
de cette cité sans citoyens, ces sénateurs sans sénat, et ce 
ciel moitié eau, moitié air; mais venez jouir de ce paradis 
terrestre, et augmentez-en les charmes les jouissances et les 
attraits par votre présence. 

“Hier: j’ai tenté votre appartement; salle a manger, 
salle a digestion, deux chambres a coucher &c.; exposé au midi 
d’otii on jouit du soleil dans tout son beau, depuis son lever 
jusqu’a son coucher. Alla Gran Bretagna tout est rempli, pas 
méme un cabinet a louer, pas un tout petit boudoir, apparte- 
ments d’ailleurs trés-superflus pour mon aimable et bien-amiée 
Comtesse qui ne boude personne et jamais. 

“C’est donc alle Crocelle (the hotel at Naples which he 
had frequented in former years) que vous ferez des heureux, 
et que vous jouirez de ce paradis terrestre ; que vous reprendrez 
votre santé, et votre gaieté ; que vous oublierez un fichu irlan- 
dais, et que vous le remplacerez par un saint Evéque, digne de 
votre attachement par celui méme qu’il vous porte, et par 
l’inalterable estime que vos vertus et vos talents ont imprimés 
dans la plus grande profondeur de son cceur un peu trop 
sensible. 

‘‘Marquez-moi donc, chére amie, le jour de votre départ, 
et je ferai impossible pour vous rencontrer dans la portique 
de ce beau palais de Naples, Mola di Gaeta. La vous jouerez 
d’avance et dans le lointain de I’Isle d’Ischia, Capri et Vésuve, 
et, d’un angle du golfe de Naples. Je vous prendrai en phaéton, 
pour mieux jouir de ce céleste ciel, et vous sentirez a chaque 
pas combien ce fichu irlandais, s’éloignera de votre cceur, et 
un digne Anglais le remplacéra. Chére Comtesse adieux 
jusqu’a ce bienheureux moment; partez au plut6t, et ne 
retardez pas votre bonheur et le mien. BriIsToL. 

‘“ Figurez-vous, ma chére amie, que dans ce moment, je 
viens de recevoir votre trés-chére lettre en date de bains de 
Pise le 30 Septembre ; et quoique adressée a Naples, elle a 
roulé toute l Allemagne, porte les marques de Francfort, Nurem- 
berg, et Genove. Qu’elles bétes que les maitres de poste! ”’ 


The Earl Bishop 493 


The Lichtenau, whose arrival at Naples was now so im- 
_ patiently awaited, delayed her coming from Rome where she 
was sitting for her portrait to Angelica Kauffmann. Mean- 
while the Bishop’s correspondence with Lady Hamilton 
continued as ardently as ever. The light of Lady Hamilton 
was not to be in any way eclipsed by the new star in the Bishop’s 
firmament. He apparently desired they should shine with 
_ equal lustre at the same time, while the Queen herself was the 
great luminary in whose rays all were to bask. And as if to 
guard against Lady Hamilton suspecting any rival to herself 
in his regard, the Bishop gallantly assures her that she remains 
‘ the first letter of his Alphabet.’’ The following letter seems to 
belong to this time—December, 1796: 


‘“ EVER DEAREST Emma, I went down to your Opera box two 
minutes after you left it; and should have seen you on the 
morning of your departure (for Caserta) but was detained in 
the arms of Murphy, as Lady Eden expresses it, and was too 
late. You say nothing of the adorable Queen; I hope she 
has not forgot me, but as Shakespeare says, ‘ Who doats must 
doubt,’ and I verily deem her the very best edition of a woman 
I ever saw—-I mean, of such as are not in folio, and are to be 
had in sheets—I will come on Friday or Saturday (to Caserta) ; 
but our British Colony are so numerous that my duties obstruct 
my pleasures. Ever, & invariably, dearest dear Emma most 
affectionately yours, B. 

“ You see, I am but the second letter of your Alphabet, 
though you are the first of mine.”’ 

Ike new year of 1796 opened gloomily at Caserta, where 
the Bishop arrived as a guest. The health both of Sir William 
and of Lady Hamilton’s mother, who resided with them, gave 
cause for anxiety. The Queen sent constantly to inquire 
after the invalids. 

One missive from the Queen runs as follows : 

‘Je vous prie de faire bien mes complimens 4a 1|’Excellent 
milord Bristol et de lui dire que je rougis pensant a toute 
Pobligation que j’ai de ses attentions, auxquels je n’ai point 
remercié avant, ignorant ot le retrouver. Adieu ma chére 
amie, excusez-moi, et ne me faites point perdre l’amitié du bon 
Evéque que je prise infiniment. Ménagez votre santé, Dieu 
vous accorde a tous une heureuse nuit, et croyez-moi pour la 
vie, bien sincérement votre bien attachée amie.” 


At length, in January, 1796, Countess Lichtenau with her 
suite arrived in Naples from Rome. The young de Saxe, it may 
VOL. II, II 


494 The Earl Bishop 


be mentioned in passing, was now no longer in her train, being 
to his infinite regret detained in Rome by his father. His 
letters addressed thence to the object of his infatuation at Naples 
appear the passionate effusions of a boy, smitten, as he con- 
fesses, by a woman for the first time. The mature coquette 
evidently replied, alternately discouraging his excessive ardour, 
and, while sending her portrait, good-naturedly permitting him 
to hope. Meanwhile the Countess made a triumphant entry 
into Neapolitan Society, being admitted by the Queen to her 
circle, entertained by the all-powerful Minister, General Acton, 
and of course received at the English Embassy with open arms. 
The Bishop paid court to her every day, and openly displayed 
her miniature suspended from his neck. It is curious to note 
that a water-colour portrait of the Bishop evidently painted 
at Naples—Vesuvius is seen in the background—represents 
him wearing the miniature, over his episcopal coat—which, it 
may be added, is of puce or purplish colour.* 

There is mention of Madame Ritz and the Bishop at this 
time in a letter of Morritt of Rokeby. Morritt, then a very 
young man, and not as yet arrived at his fame as the erudite 
traveller, and discoverer of Troy, was now amusing himself, 
and acquiring experience, by seeing life at Naples, and he wrote 
home the tittle-tattle about the people he met there. “One 
of the first luminaries of our society,’ he wrote from Naples 
in February, 1796 (“‘ Morritt of Rokeby’s Letters,’ page 289), “is 
Madame de Ritz, a left-handed wife & long a favourite Sultana 
of his present Majesty (of Prussia). This lady, as you know, was 
said to have negociated the Duke of Brunswick’s famous retreat 
being gained by the French. I do not know whether this is 
true nor do I much believe it, for she is now quite anti-Gallican, 
& the English are honoured with every attention. We see her 
frequently, & dine there sometimes as she gives very agreeable 
parties, and is, in fact, a very pleasant lively woman, the in- 
namorato people attribute to her is a curious one, viz. Lord 
Bristol the Bishop of Derry, aged sixty two,ft with whom she is 
very intimate, & travelled part of her tour. Now, as she is 
young & also rich, I think the affair may admit of doubt ; 
though as to my lord he is the strangest being ever made, & 
with all the vices and follies of youth, a drunkard and an Atheist, 
though a Bishop, constantly talking blasphemy, or indecently 
at least, and at the same time very clever & with infinite wit, 
in short a true Hervey. As he courts every young & every old 


* This picture, now belonging to the Rev. Sydenham Hervey, was bought in Italy 
some years ago by his aunt, the late Lady Currie. 


+ The Bishop was sixty-five. 


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The Earl Bishop 495 


woman he knows, I suppose like the Irishman who was half 
married, that in the case of Madame de Ritz he has his own 
consent.”’ 


While the contemporaneous gossip always contributes its 
quota to history, the above, spicy as it is, may be taken with 
an admixture of salt. Reference has already been made to 
the loyal defence of the Bishop which the Countess herself 
makes in her “ Apologie.”’ But toa stranger and an Englishman 
it naturally appeared sufficiently scandalous that a prelate of 
the Established Church should openly conduct himself with 
familiarity towards women. The very Openness may, however, 
be pleaded as a refutation of more serious interpretations, and 
the Countess, while admitting that it was the habit of ‘ Bristol ”’ 
to address her and Lady Hamilton familiarly by the French 
or Italian ‘Tu,’ adds that he “ greeted Emma before her 
husband in the most affectionate manner,’ and that Hamilton 
on one occasion “seeing her (the Countess) withdraw herself 
from Bristol’s embrace, observed, ‘ Laissez-le; il embrasse un 
tableau comme il vous embrasse.’ ”’ 

The two ladies, after making acquaintance, became at once 
on the most friendly terms, as is attested by some notes from 
Lady Hamilton to the Countess. (‘“ Apologie der Grafin Lich- 
tenau,’ Vol. II., page 53.) ‘‘ Un violent mal de téte me retient 
au lit,”’ writes Lady Hamilton in one, “‘ et me prive du plaiser 
d’aller vous chercher pour aller chez Lord Bristol. J’en suis 
au désespoir, car il me semble qu’il y a mille ans que je ne vous 
ai vue Si cela peut vous convenir, nous remettrons la partie a 
demain. Vous seriez bien aimable de venir ce soir prendre du 
thé chez moi. Emma Hamitton.” 


In February, 1796, news of the death at sea of his son, 
Lord Hervey, reached the Bishop at Naples. It was known 
in England on the r2th of that month, but probably was not 
received at Naples till later.* An undated letter from the 
Bishop to Lady Hamilton thus informs her of the event 


“ Wednesday. 


“ My DEAREST Emma, The very unexpected intelligence, 
which Prince Augustus has most delicately communicated to 
me, of poor Lord Hervey’s decease has quite bouleversé my 
already shattered frame. 


_* General William Hervey received the news at Ickworth on February 12th, 1796, 
Friday. ‘‘ At about 4 O'clock an express came from Mr. Jenkinson with an account of my 
nephew Lord Hervey’s death; who died at sea, having caught a cold from going on deck 
lightly clothed in the night, which held him 3 weeks.”’ 


VOL. II. Ti* 


496 The Earl Bishop 


“T would not allow your friendly mind to learn an event 
so interesting to me from any other hand than that of your 
affectionate and devoted friend BRISTOL.” 

The Bishop now became seriously ill at Naples and lay 
abed many weeks. Lady Webster arriving there at this 
juncture records a curious story concerning him. 

‘“ The principal object of my excursion (to Naples),”’ she says, 
“was to see my old friend Italinski. Lord Bristol was there 
dangerously ill. As soon as the physicians declared him in 
danger he sent to Italinski for my picture adding that, though 
he had refused him a copy, he could not deny a dying man 
anything. Italinski was embarrassed but sent the picture. 
As soon as it came he had it placed upon an easel at the foot 
of the bed, & round it large cives d éghises, &, for aught I know 
to the contrary, he may still be contemplating my phiz. What 
makes this freak the more strange is that it is not from regard 
to me, as he scarcely knows me, & never manifested much 
liking to me ; probably it reminds him of some woman he once 
loved and whose image occupies his mind in his last moments.’ 

It was probably the beauty of Fagan’s painting, and not 
that of the lady it represented, that excited the Bishop’s en- 
thusiastic admiration; and it seems not unlikely he took 
the opportunity of having the picture copied. The original 
was eventually returned to its owner and is now at Holland 
House. 

Young Morritt, writing to his sister on February 27, reports 
of the Bishop: “‘ He has been nearly dying, & I am sorry 
to say is better and likely to recover.” 

When getting better, but still in bed, the Bishop wrote 
as follows to Lady Elizabeth Foster, who, while on a visit 
to the Duke of Richmond, had, it appears, written to her 
father recommending Goodwood as a model for his new house 
at Ickworth. The actual building of this had evidently taken 
but little form during the four years that elapsed since the 
Bishop chose the site; but his architectural designs were in 
course of constant development and made marked progress 
later in this year. 


‘“ Naples, 
“ March 6, 1706. 


‘““T did not expect a second letter of yours from Goodwood 
without a plan and elevation of that model of a house you 
admired so much and prefer to mine. 

‘A few guineas, my child, would have procured it and you 
know I am not niggard of them ; especially where architecture 


The Earl Bishop 497 


is concerned. I am certain on your speaking to the Duke of 
Richmond he will order it immediately ; you may fold it up in 
a large letter, & I receive it time enough to adopt any improve- 
ment it contains. 

“ You beg me on your knees that Ickworth may be built 
of white stone brick. You know my dear, what Ranger says to 
his Cousin, & upon my knees I beg you too. What! Child, 
build my house of a brick that looks like a sick, pale jaundiced 
red brick, that would be red brick if it could, and to which I 
am certain our posterity will give a little rouge as essential to 
its health & beauty ? White brick always looks as if the brick- 
layers had not burnt it sufficiently, had been niggardly of the 
fuel ; it looks all dough & no crust. I am even looking out for 
its crust too, so my dear, I shall follow dear impeccable Palladio’s 
tule, and as nothing ought to be without a covering in our 
raw damp climate, I shall cover house pillars & pillasters with 
Palladio’s stucco which has now lasted 270 years. It has 
succeeded perfectly well with me at Downhill on that temple of 
the winds, as well as at my Casino of Derry—that temple of 
Cloacina. It has resisted the frosts & the rains of Vicenza— 
a tout dive—and deceives the most acute eye till within 
a foot. 

“We have Lord Macartney here these eight days.* They 
have had him at Court twice & have squeezed this China orange 
so close they left him nothing but the pulp. What restless 
perturbed spirits he has, that in the course of his short life 
he has visited Petersburgh & Grenada, Madras & Pekin, & is 
now reduced to a mock embassy to a mock King.t Apropos, 
I passed two hours & a half with this king of Candides ; he is 
no Carnival King, however, that is certain, but un vrai rot de 
Caréme.t I never conversed with a more pleasing, cheerfuller, 
easier, better-informed man in any country. Adversity has not 
soured him but sweetened him, & turned all his vinegar into oil. 
[ am truly delighted you are so much so with the picture I 
sent Louisa. ’Tis a real bijou & just fit for her breakfast 
Toom, but you say nothing of the Berlin déjeuné which I reckon 
a great cadeau, and when it stands on a tripod of Siberian 
Malachite will be impayable. What say you to my idea of 
a gallery of German painters from Albert Diirer to Angelica 
Kauffmann & from Cimabué to Pompeio Battoni, each divided 


* Lord Macartney (1737-1806) had been at the head of the first British Mission to 
China (1792). 


t Louis XVIII. in exile, to whom Lord Macartney was sent on a confidential mission. 


" Caréme, the celebrated French chef of Louis XVIIJ., who was noted for his gour- 
mandtse. 


498 The Earl Bishop 


by pillasters into their respective schools—Venetian for colour- 
ing, Bologna for composition, Florence for designs, Rome for 
sentiment, & Naples for nothing at all? But the Homer of 
painting is, in my mind, ... Germany, Rembrandt, & the 
author of the ‘ Descent from the Cross’ at Antwerp. Raphael 
and all Italian painters are the Minor Poets of painting, the 
Garths, the Priors, but there is not a Shakespeare among 
them. Michael Angelo is mad not sublime; ludicrous not 
dignified. He is the Dante of painters, as Dante is the Michael 
Angelo of poets. The picture of the last Judgment is so tragi- 
comical ’tis difficult to say what passion it excites most ; and 
st. Barthélemi, all flayed, who holds up his skin as his ticket 
of admittance into Heaven, is worthy only of Bartholomew fair. 
Adieu, This the fortieth day in bed unremittingly, reduced to a 
shadow, yet devouring like a shark. My pulse is a pulse of 
threads scarce to be felt. The King & Queen supply me with 
game and I make game of everybody. The House—The 
House—The House.” 


CHAP EE RA LT 
1796 (continued) 


|e was at this time, shortly after the death of his elder 

son, without issue male, that the Bishop began to 
scheme an alliance for his younger son, Frederick William, who 
was now Lord Hervey and heir-apparent to the Earldom of 
Bristol. 

According to Continental custom it mattered nothing 
that the young persons to be affianced had not seen each other : 
and the Bishop, who never anticipated obstacles to his designs, 
took it for granted that his son would be willing to marry a 
girl who was as beautiful as she was rich, and who, as the 
idolized daughter of the King of Prussia, might be counted on 
to influence the state affairs, and even the Councils of Europe ; 
and thus raise her husband to a position calculated to satisfy 
the most ambitious. In this light the Countess Mariana de la 
Marche appeared to the Bishop a highly desirable daughter-in- 
Jaw elect. His dear friend Countess Lichtenau willingly 
inclined to this project of marriage for her daughter, who was 
aged seventeen, and whose engagement to Count Medem had 
lately been broken off. The new Lord Hervey was looked upon 
as a great part1, being heir to his father’s wealth, which was 
believed to be immense, while the “‘ Count Bishop ” himself, a 
prominent figure at various Courts, held a unique position, half 
episcopal and half secular, which seemed, in Continental eyes, 
akin to that of the great ecclesiastical princes of medieval 
times. 

Frederick, however, was deeply attached to Miss Elizabeth 
Upton, daughter of the late Lord Templetown, and sister of 
the young Lord whose entanglement with Countess Lichtenau 
has already been discussed. Notwithstanding his son’s attach- 
ment, the Bishop hoped his opposition would easily put an end 
to it, such a match not being sufficiently advantageous to gratify 
his ambition for his son, and, moreover, a connection with the 


499 


500 The Earl Bishop 


Templetown family not being to his taste. He was acquainted 
with Lady Templetown and her daughters who had visited 
Naples in the preceding winter when the Bishop was there. 
The Queen, in more than one of her billets to Lady Hamilton, 
alludes to their reception at Court, and she particularly requests 
her “ chéve amte’”’ not to omit to see that they have no scents 
about them (“‘ odeurs’’) “‘as the Queen’s health could not bear 
such.” 

Between the Bishop and Countess Lichtenau the common 
interest in their matrimonial scheme formed a fresh link of 
intimacy. The Countess, whose year of travel was drawing to 
a close, was to lay the proposal before the King of Prussia, and 
bring matters to a head on her arrival at home. Apparently 
she left Naples for Rome before the Mid-Lent festivities, during 
which the Bishop, who was detained at Naples by his illness, 
wrote the following note to her dated ‘21 Mars, 17096.” 
(“ Apologie,’”’ Vol. II., page 40.) 


“Tout est mascarade dans ce monde excepté chez ma chére 
Wilhelmine: Tu es la franchise et la vérité méme, mais avec 
un coeur trop sensible; ce qui le fera la dupe de plus d’un 
coquin.”’ 


Lady Hamilton, a week later, wrote to the Countess : 


‘““ Naples, 
“29 Mars, 1796. 


“ Trés-chére amie, Je désire vivement savoir de vos chéres 
nouvelles, et comme va votre santé, et quand vous reviendrez 
chez-nous. Le bon et bienfaisant Lord Bristol (these epithets 
it may be noted were first used by the Queen of Naples) est au 
désespoir sans vous, et vous attend avec le méme empressement 
que les Juifs attendent Notre Seigneur chez-eux. Mon mari 
vous salue de tout son cceur. La bonne et sincére Denis* ne 
parle que de vous, et vous embrasse, et nous joignons nos 
priéres pour que vous ne voyiez pas la . . . (name omitted) a 
Rome, qui a été trés-méchante et deshonorée ici. . . . Adieu 
chére Comtesse, aimez votre sincére et attachée amie, 

“EMMA HAMILTON.” 


* Mrs. Denis, the amiable wife of the English painter, was intimately associated with 
the household of the Hamiltons and a great favourite of the Bishop, whose letters often 
allude to her. Madame le Brun lodged in the Denis’s house when she was at Naples in 
1787, painting the Bishop’s portrait. She records in her Memoirs that Mrs. Denis, “ who 
was a Roman, showed me the dagger she always had about her ’’—according to the custom 
of Roman women, The Bishop, as we shall see later, offered her a house near Ickworth. 


The Earl Bishop 501 


The Bishop’s convalescence was slow. He wrote from 
Naples on April 9: 


“Soyez sire, ma chére Wilhelmina, que le premier usage 
que je ferai de la résurrection de mes forces, c’est de me rendre 
a Rome. Demain je fais le premier essai dans une petite excur- 
sion jusqu’a Paestum. Nous revenons Samedi; et le mardi 
aprés, cofite que cofite, je vole jusqu’a Rome. Quand la 
Montagne ne voulait pas aller jusqu’a Mahomet, le bon pro- 
phéte s’en allait 4 la montagne qui ne bougeait point. Bien 
des amitiés a la chére petite Chappuis* et a votre digne et 
Vertueux Cicerone le trés-savant Hirt :f c’est un parfait hon- 
néte homme.” 


An undated letter from the Bishop to Day,{ the miniature 
painter and well-known collector of Italian pictures who was 
now residing in Rome, was evidently written shortly before the 
Bishop’s departure from Naples : 


‘“ By the greatest luck in the world I have found a man who 
will lend me £200 & more, so that, if you cannot by any means 
make a better bargain for me, agree to the due mille Pezz durt 
which shall be deposited, but die hard I beseech.’’ 

“You wrote to me also for a deposit of {100, and you could 
make some superlative acquisitions; this too by the same 
means I can afford you, so that you may make an eventual 
conditional bargain, & send me a list of what you mean to 
buy. 

“As soon as the weather and my health permit I set off 
for Rome.’’§ 

The Bishop had sufficiently recovered to leave Naples in 
May. Before his departure the Queen wrote to Emma to let 
her know ‘‘Si milord Bristol est en état de venir me prendre 
congé. Sans cela, je prendrai congé par écrit, pour ne point 
manquer vers lui d’attention. Je me flatte que, si il vient, 
vous aurez la complaisance de l’accompagner.”’ 

This mark of the Queen’s attention is sufficient proof that 
he retained her regard to the end. It may be observed that 


* Mile. Chapuis, dame-de-compagnie to Countess Lichtenau. 


+ Hirt, a celebrated professor, who had formerly been a monk, was one of Countess 
Lichtenau’s suite, and travelled home with her to Berlin, where, by her influence, he was 
made Head of the Academy. 


{ Alexander Day (1772-1841)—many of his fine collection of pictures are now in the 
National Gallery. 


§ ‘Hamilton and Nelson Letters ’’ (Morrison Collection), 382. 


502 The Earl Bishop 


after leaving Naples on this occasion the Bishop never again 
had an opportunity of meeting the Queen; although it was 
evidently his intention to return to Naples the next winter, for 
he kept his large house there—full of his pictures. 

When the Bishop arrived in Rome, Countess Lichtenau had 
left. She had received unfavourable reports regarding the 
King of Prussia’s health, and determined to return home 
without delay. 

Meanwhile the Bishop matured his schemes for his son’s 
marriage. The young man was to be invited to make his 
intended fiancée’s acquaintance at Pyrmont, whither she 
was to accompany the King, her father, during the summer ; 
and there the whole party were to meet and arrange matters. 
Moreover, a portrait of the young Countess de la Marche was 
to be painted forthwith at Berlin, and dispatched to Lord 
Hervey in England. 

Full of these plans, the Bishop wrote as follows to Countess 
Lichtenau—it will be observed that he now has nothing but the 
most enthusiastic eulogies for his son, all trace of his former 
displeasure being absent, although the stigma “ ungratefull 
son ’”’ still stood in his will, and, indeed, is to remain there for 
all time. 


“ Rome (au lit), 
“26 Mai, 1796. 


“La continuité de ma convalescence, chére amie, m’a 
donné le temps de bien peser notre affaire ; et plus j’y pense, 
plus j’y réve, mieux j’en augure. Il doit venir nous trouver a 
Pyrmont, et je ne crains pas de vous dire que vous serez éprise 
et véritablement enchantée (that is with his son Frederick). 
{la parfaitement le bon ton de la Société ; de la littérature ; de 
la politique ; beau visage, belle physionomie, figure précieuse ; 
éloquence naturelle ; abord qui enchante ; modestie anglaise ; 
retenue nationale ; avec une fierté digne de son pére et de 
ses aleux. 

“En attendant, je voudrais que vous écrivissiez, de Venise 
méme, a Graft le peintre de Dresde, pour se rendre tout de 
suite a Berlin ; et la, peindre le portrait en entier de Mademoi- 
selle votre fille. Qu’elle soit debout dans un parfait déshabillé, 
et surtout sans coiffure sur la téte ; qu’elle appuye le coude sur 
une trés-joli cheminée, comme si elle parlait 4 quelqu’un. De 
cette fagon, nous aurons la physionomie de son visage, de 
sa figure, de sa taille, de son déportement (son port), et de quoi 
le juger a notre loisir. Vous alors aurez la bonté de faire venir 


The Earl Bishop 503 


le portrait de Berlin a Pyrmont, d’ou, aprés avoir fait notre 
campagne (?) agueuse, nous pourrions, si vous le trouvez bon, 
tuit. quant: retourner a Berlin chez-vous. 

“Quel progrés rapide que celui de notre amitié depuis le con- 
cert de Munich! Tout a été en unison—vrai harmonie depuis, 
chére amie, bon jour. 

‘“ BRISTOL.” 


In Rome the Bishop showed his wonted enthusiasm for 
commissioning artists to paint landscapes of subjects he had 
chosen. He wrote to Sir William Hamilton : 


“Rome, 
Hind haretey (evn, aeria\ay 


“T entreat you not to lose a moment in transmitting to me 
here at Caffé Inglese the proper licence for Mr. Reynage, English 
painter, born in London, now in Lord Bristol’s service; and 
Mons. Dennis, Flemish painter born in Brussels, also in Lord 
Bristol’s service, for painting at Sora and Isola di Sora. Lose 
no time I entreat you as time is precious, & I expect two of the 
very finest pictures ever painted. My best love, respects & 
all to dearest Emma. Ever yours most cordially, &c. B.”’ 


On his way north from Rome, he halted at Civita Castellana, 
which the Countess had passed through exactly a month before, 
leaving a trace of her transit by the inscription of her name 
and the date on the chimney-piece of the inn. The sight of 
this memento inspired the sexagenarian gallant to effusions in 
the character of a St. Evremond addressing Ninon de 
L’Enclos. 

Two letters to the Prussian Syren are dated “‘ Civita Castel- 
lana, 8 Juin, ’96.’”’ (‘‘ Countess Lichtenau’s Apologie,”’ Vol. IT.) 


(No.1).—"‘ Chére amie, quoique tu m’ayez écrit ce matin 
de Rome, ayant cependant apercu ton cher et précieux nom 
tracé de ta propre main sur la cheminée de Civita Castellana, 
ou tu as diné le 8 Mai, je ne saurai résister a l’impression que cette 
découverte m’a faite pour te dire combien ce cher nom m/agite 
toutes les fois que je le vois. Je profite donc de !’adresse que 
tu m’as donnée pour te dire tout le plaisir que je sens a lidée 
de me trouver dans une chambre que tu as occupée et qui 

orte, selon mon imagination, l’empreinte de tes chers pieds. 
n cas que tu recoives ce billet, tout fou qu’il est, écris-moi en 
réponse deux mots a Munich, le cher Munich, poste restante. 


504 The Earl Bishop 


“Je ne sais si je t’ai dit que je t’avais mandé a ton Hotel 
a Berlin, douze chaises, deux portes battantes, deux tables 
de bois mahogany, ayant entendu dire la chére, Denis que ton 
enthousiasme t’avait porté un jour a Castellamare jusqu’a 
baiser de telles chaises chez le General Acton—Est-il vrai ? 

“En revanche, chére amie, donne moi une montre a la 
fagon, selon ton goat, car il y a dix ans que je n’en porte, les 
ayant données successivement a mes enfants et mes petits 
enfants, et ayant dé goiit singulier a ne présenter moi-méme 
de telles babioles ; mais de ta main combien elle me serait chére! 
Et puis, quel doux commerce que de se présenter comme cela 
alternativement de petits ou de grands souvenirs! Je compte 
que ces chaises arrivement a Berlin avant toi. Au moins 
c’était bien la mon projet de te surprendre, si jamais tu 
peux étre surprise des attentions et des adorations de ton ami 
BRISTOL.” 


Later on the same day he wrote : 


(No. 2).—‘“ Dans une heure, mais une heure bien longue, je 
pars pour l’ Allemagne, l’antipode de cet enfer italien et comme 
le vent est au nord, chaque pas que je ferai je me dirai: 
Peutétre ce souffle vient d’elle, a passé sur ses lévres de roses, 
s'est amalgamé avec son haleine de zéphyrs ; et je croirai in- 
haler au moins quelques atomes de Vhaleine de ma chére 
Wilhelmine. 

“Dieu veuille que je vous trouve en chemin ou 4 Munich, 
ou a Ratisbonne, des bon diners de Ratisbonne vous arré- 
teront peutétre, encore plus, l’espoir d’y attendre votre ami de 
coeur, d’Ame, d’esprit, et de toutes les fonctions spirituelles 
et charnelles (quoique dans ce moment il ne posséde que 
des os). 

' BRISTOLes 


While the Bishop travelled swiftly in the direction of Ger- 
many, the Countess, some distance in advance of him, hastened 
homeward to the King of Prussia. The next letter in chrono- 
logical order shows the Bishop on his way. Very dissimilar 
in its nature to the last, it is highly characteristic of the Bishop 
in his phase of diplomatic emissary with regard to the conduct 
of European affairs. Addressed to Sir Wiliam Hamilton, 
who has endorsed it ‘‘ curious but true,’’ the letter is especially 
remarkable as showing an Irish Bishop as the chosen inter- 
mediary of an Austrian General in the Field, during a great 
military campaign, on a point of the highest military import 


*boS asnd aanf of | 


¢ 


‘yuo, YVION 


YWOMAIT 








The Earl Bishop 505 


—intermediary through the English Ambassador with the 
Neapolitan Queen. (‘‘ Hamilton and Nelson Papers ”’ (Morrison 
Collection), Vol. I., No. 283.) 


“and July, 17096. 

“T have had a long conference with that spirited active 
zealous Marshal Wurmser,* he entreated me to press you 
to make the Neapolitan troops penetrate into the Romagna 
as far as Ferrara—that the fate of Italy depended on it— 
that if they did show themselves he would profit of it to attack 
the French, who could not possibly face both armies; that 
he would cut off their retreat by Milan and Tortona, whilst 
the King of Naples might harass them at Bologna & Ferrara 
& make them disgorge all their plunder. That if the Nea- 
politan troops do not advance, the French may possibly pour 
in more troops than he can resist, and the event must be very 
uncertain, but terribly bloody ; in short, that Italy depends 
on it. Your impression, dear Sir Wm., must be on the Queen 
—no other has a soul, no not one.”’ 


On his arrival at Pyrmont (whither he had journeyed post- 
haste in order to join the King of Prussia) the Bishop dispatched 
his Chaplain, Lovell, to Suffolk to report and inspect the building 
in progress at Ickworth and convey his instructions with regard 
toit. The following letter, ot which the Chaplain was the bearer, 
is addressed to his life-long friend, Professor John Symonds, 
who lived near Ickworth, and on whose judgment in matters of 
taste the Bishop much relied. The letter—a fine specimen of 
the Bishop’s manner at his best—gives insight into his archi- 
tectural plan, and into his theory with regard to the classifi- 
cation of pictures which was remarkably in advance of his era. 
It is thus clear that the new Ickworth, as original in style as it 1s 
grandiose in scale and proportion, was wholly the creation 
of its equally original designer. 


‘“ Pyrmont, 
MeL Gn aly Oo. 
“DEAR SYMONDS, an old friend claims your opinion of his 
new house ; for altho’ he has a very high opinion of it himself, 
yet your judgement would highly raise it—I wish to make it 
quite classical—to unite magnificence with convenience & sim- 
_plicity with Dignity—no redundancy—no superfluity—not one 


* The General, Count Wurmser, had just succeeded to the command of the Austrian 
troops in Italy, but was defeated by Bonaparte on several occasions. He died shortly 
after returning to Vienna in 1797. 


506 The Earl Bishop | 


unnecessary Room, but the necessary ones to be noble & con- — 
venient ; to have few pictures, but choice ones, & my Galleries 
to exhibit an historical progress of the art of Painting both in 
Germany & Italy—& that divided into its characteristical schools 
—Venice, Bologna, Florence &c. &c. The gentleman I present 
to you is Mr. Lovell, My Chaplain, lately collated to a Prebend 
in the Cathedral of Derry, no bad artist, and a Connoisseur of 
merit—accompany him to Ickworth—as he can better explain 
to you my architectural ideas than even my Architect himself 
—& I flatter myself they are both Pure & Noble. When that 
house is finished I hope to make some residence at Ickworth, 
tho’ its vicinity offers nothing but yourself worth cultivating. 
Adieu & be certain that neither time nor absence has abated 
the sentiments of your sincere friend, 
‘ BRISTOR: 


(Addressed): ‘‘ John Symonds Esq., St. Edmund’s Hill, 
UT ee 


It would seem that a great spurt forward in the building 
was determined on at this time; yet, if indeed the King of 
Prussia, in accordance with the Bishop’s intrigues, was really 
expected to visit Ickworth in the coming year, as the Bishop 
announces, 1t would surely have been impossible, even with 
the utmost speed, to complete the house sufficiently for his 
reception. 

When the Bishop reached Pyrmont in July, 1796, the 
King of Prussia was already established there with his daughter, 
Countess de la Marche, and her mother, the Countess Lichtenau. 
The latter, on the conclusion of her Italian tour, had found 
the King at Potsdam in a bad state of health. He had become 
lethargic, showed symptoms of dropsy, and had enormously 
increased in bulk. She forthwith brought him to Pyrmont 
to drink the waters, and was herself assiduous in her attention 
to his comfort. Strangely enough, partly in acknowledgment of 
this, and partly in compliment to the ci-devant Madame Ritz’s 
newly acquired status among the Prussian nobility, the neglected 
Queen of Prussia actually dispatched to Pyrmont her miniature 
as a present to the Countess, who wore it henceforth on all 
occasions. (Vehse’s “Court of Prussia.’’) Everywhere ac- 
claimed with honour, the Countess was now, indeed, at the 
acme of her elevation and influence. The King of Prussia was 
easily persuaded to give his warm consent to the alliance of his 
daughter with the Earl Bishop’s son and heir. Daily at Pyr- 


* Letter now in the possession of the Rev. Lord Manners Hervey. 





The Earl Bishop 507 


mont a partie-carrée, consisting of the King, Countess Lichtenau, 
their daughter, and the Earl Bishop, was to be seen on driving 
excursions in the wooded neighbourhood. But the young Lord 
Hervey, so ardently awaited, did not arrive, nor had he any 
intention of coming. Meanwhile his father’s impatience knew 
no bounds. 

The Bishop now wrote to his daughter, Lady Ehzabeth 
Foster, urging her to use her utmost endeavours to persuade 
her brother to leave England, give up Miss Upton, and form 
a more advantageous alliance in accordance with his father’s 
wishes. The following series of letters published in ‘ The 
Two Duchesses’’ shows the Bishop, as it were, in the part of 
the worldly father on the stage, while the young hero defies 
his father’s designs, and is faithful to the dictates of his heart. 


‘“ Pyrmont, 
“ August, 1796. 
‘““ DEAREST ELIZABETH, 

“Though I would not for the world itself disappoint 
your poor Brother’s hopes, if his noble generous heart be really 
engaged, nor even diminish of one obole the allowance I should 
be able to make him, which is exactly the same I gave your poor 
dear eldest brother, yet I must confess it would half break 
my heart to see his fixed on any other than the beautiful, elegant, 
important & interesting object I have proposed to him.* 
At least, dearest El’za, if you have any interest with him, 
induce him, beg him, my dear, not to decide before he is able 
to choose. She would bring him into our family £5,000 a year, 
besides a principality in Germany, an English Dukedom for 
Frederick or me, which the King of Prussia is determined to 
obtain in case the marriage takes place.—a perpetual relation- 
ship with both the Princess of Wales, and her children, as also 
with the Duchess of York,+ & her progeny.—the Embassy to 
Berlin, with such an influence & preponderance in favor of 
dear England as no other could withstand. Add to all this the 
King is so bent upon it from his great partiality to me, that I 
doubt not his doubling the dot in case F. desired it, which indeed 


* The charms of the young Countess are thus described by Dampmartin (‘‘ Vie privée de 
Frederick Guillaume II.’’ (1811) : ‘‘ La Comtesse de la Marche avait de fort belles formes, 
brillant par un esprit qui annoucait une éducation soignée, et donnait des prouves d’un 
caractére franc, ouvert et généreux. Elle recut de la nature des dons que leur prodigalité 
rend souvent dangéreux, une imagination vive, et un coeur sensible. Elle comptait de 
nombreux partisans, et pas un seul ennemi.”’ 

+ The Duchess of York was the daughter of the King of Prussia—the only child of his 
first marriage. Her ‘‘ progeny’”’ existed merely in the Bishop’s imagination. Lord 
Hervey was to become her brother-in-law. The Duchess’s divorced mother was aunt to 
the Princess of Wales. 


508 The Earl Bishop 


I should not. We are, besides, all determined to go and meet 
him the moment we hear of his debarking, which he may notify 
by estafette. In short, nothing could be more brilliant, or 
flattering, or more cordial than his reception in case he can think 
with us; and indeed, Dearest Elizabeth, the example he has 
before his eyes in and within his own family ought fully to 
determine him against a love-match ; ’Tis so ominous a lottery, 
so pregnant with blanks, so improbable a success. In short 
dearest Elizabeth, write to me soon, above all See dim. All I 
desire of him is not to resolve against us, not to throw away a 
Pearl, richer than all his tribe ; let him but see before he decides, 
let him weigh all we offer to his ambition, his ease, his comfort, 
his taste, and his pocket.”’ 


™ Pyrmont, 
“ Aug. 4, 1796. 

‘“ DEAREST ELIZABETH, 

“T have wrote more warmly & fully to your dear 
brother on my project of marrying him to one of the prettiest, 
sweetest, most delicate, & innocent as well as accomplished 
little women I ever saw, endowed with {100,000 down, besides 
the reversion of a landed property in Germany, with the promise 
of a Dukedom to him or me, as the King of Prussia can obtain 
it from our King. On the contrary, though God forbid I should 
negative his inclinations poor fellow, at his time of life, and in 
his state of health, (1 wish) to dissuade him all I can (and I 
entreat your assistance sweet Elizabeth) from his present pur- 
suit. She has little or no fortune—Your brother by the last 
act of settlement, can make no provision for either her or her 
children & if he should die within five or six years—which the 
perturbed state of his mind might easily produce—what must be 
the consequence to his widow & her orphans ? Once married 
and the first heat of passion allayed, what must be the state of 
an anxious debilitated mind ? 

“ Dearest Elizabeth—Farquhar (Farquhar, the celebrated 
physician to the family of George III.) himself could not ensure 
his poor life for a year more after black & melancholy ideas 
should begin to possess his mind. Relief would neither be in 
his power nor mine, & medicine would be the more ineffectual 
as the malady would be in the mind. If you care, my dear 
child to accompany your brother to Pyrmont & from thence to 
pass the winter at Naples, I will gladly pay your expenses, 
& be glad of your company for the winter. The King of Prussia 
has been good enough to write by express to the Directory at 
Paris requesting a pass-port for Lord Hervey & his suite to 


The Earl Bishop 509 


land at Ostende & pass through the low Countries to Pyrmont. 
At any rate, my dear Elizabeth, try to dissuade him from a 
passion & a pursuit so pregnant with evil consequences to the 
quiet of his mind and the health of his body, whilst on the other 
hand I offer a real Cornucopia.”’ 
‘“ Pyrmont, 
“Aug. 16, 17096. 

“You nasty little imp of silence! What are you doing, 
that one can hear no more about you than if one did not care for 
you, & yet who do I care for more ? I wrote your brother that 
he might bring your ugly face with him, & we would all go to 
Naples, where I have, without exception, the handsomest & 
best situated house there; fourteen rooms on each floor all 
hung with Rafaels, Titians, & what not. Then how happy the 
Queen of Naples to see you! & the delicious evenings we would 
pass with her. Your brother is to receive by estafette a pass- 
port from the Directory (in Paris) to land at Ostend & come to 
me through Brabant. That would be the road for you, eight 
hours sail & no more. Then, what a journey together; & a 
month’s residence at Sans Souci (the favourite residence of 
Frederick the Great) which the King has just lent me with his 
cooks, his manors, library, gallery &c. Oh! IfI can accomplish 
my heart & soul’s desire to join your dear brother’s hand with 
La Comtesse de la Marche—{5000 a year down, £5000 more in 
reversion, an English Dukedom, probably the Embassy to 
Berlin—per Dio che piacere! The King gave me his honor to 
pass next summer at Ickworth if there be a peace.” 


Vue yrmont, 
i Augustiags (a0, 
“ DEAREST ELIZABETH, 

“Are you alive or dead, or are you on a journey? 
or peradventure she sleepeth ? If so, at least dream a little, 
or walk in your sleep, or talk in your sleep, for I have no patience 
with your long, very long, silence. I proposed to your dear 
brother to bring you with him first to Pyrmont, then to Naples, 
where you know what pleasures, intellectual & sensual, await 
you, & neither your journey nor your abode shall cost you one 
farthing ; & I think the climate, to say nothing of other cir- 
cumstances would do ye both service. What I have most at 
heart at this moment is your brother’s marriage with the Com- 
tesse de la Marche, the King of Prussia’s daughter, of which I 
have wrote you so fully ; but I would not on any account, have 
you tease him about it however ardently so ever I may wish it, 
especially as he seems inclined to another project. 

VOL, It, I2 


510 The Earl Bishop 


‘But see the difference : 


On my side. On his side. 
£5000 a year down No fortune 
£5000 a year in reversion Wife & children beggars for 


want of settlement. 
An English Dukedom which the 
King of Prussia pledges to 


obtain. No connexion. 
Royal connexion—Princess of 
Wales & Duchess of York. A love match, like all others 
for four generations before 
him, 


‘“« Sweet Elizabeth when occasion serves, help me to accomplish 
my project. I cannot, if I would, afford him more than £2000 
a year whilst my house is building and furnishing. What is 
that in London ? 


But on my plan. On his plan. 
£2000 from me £2000 
£5000 Dowry. Wife & children, and no 
settlement.’ 
£3000. Embassy to Berlin or 
Munich. 
£10000. 


‘“ Pyrmont, 
‘““ September 11, 1796. 

‘“ DEAREST ELIZABETH, 

‘You are a dear amiable little girl not to have called 
on me for your sugar-plums in this year of distress & confusion, 
for by last year’s balance of my accounts with Messrs. Gosling 
there remained but one hundred pounds in their hands, and 
several of my own drafts from Italy have been protested, which 
is both expensive and disgraceful, so that you see, my dear 
child, I had little left to be generous with, having scarce enough 
to fulfil the duties of justice. 

““ About Lord Hervey : 

“And now, my dear child, for poor dear Frederick’s affair ; 
and it amazes myself when I recollect the object the nearest 
to my heart for these last twelve or fourteen years—I thought 
I could be content to vegetate for the remainder of my green 
old age among painters & sculptors, masons and bricklayers, | 
& was not aware of the very deep interest this warm, sensible 





Frederick William Hervey, first Marquess of Bristol. B. June 2, 1769; m. February 
20, 1798, Elizabeth, daughter of first Lord Templetown ; 
@abebraary Io aloso: 


By John Hoppner. Portrait at Ickworth, 


[To face page 510. 





The Earl Bishop 511 


heart of mine was likely to take in any project whatever ; but 
I own to you the idea of fixing a son of your brother’s superior 
& pre-eminent qualities, both moral & intellectual, in a station 
worthy of him & of us all, has kindled anew the almost extin- 
guished sparks, the very embers of my expiring and effete 
ambition. 

“To see him in possession of a station where his interest 
can be as independent as his spirit, & take a bond of Fate; 
to see him fixed where he can essentially & proudly serve 
the greatest country that ever reared citizens & the ablest 
ministers that ever served a country, was a prospect to which 
my dim eyes did not yet reach : then to see that project tumbled 
down to a Chateau d’Espagne in the regions of love & fancy ; 
to see him a bankrupt in the most problematical & disadvantage- 
ously fascinating Lottery with 500 blanks to one prize, would 
put even my philosophy, triumphant as it yet is, to the proof. 
Aid me, therefore, my dearest child, to eradicate, if possible, 
his own project from his mind and then to establish mine. The 
first object is to get him abroad, where if you can, I daresay you 
will accompany him ; then to secure his health of mind & body 
(the neglect of which cannot but be fatal) ; whereas a warm air 
bath at Naples, in that most balmy of all atmospheres, amidst 
music, friends, and dissipation, will be as soothing to his mind 
as the climate to his body; & as I, on account of my own 
horses, never travel above 25 or 30 miles a day, & have 
always saddle-horses at hand, he cannot fear fatigue. As to 
his love-project thus stands our account. 


i. A lady without fortune, 1. Alady with {10,000 a year 
without connexions. instead of £5000, and 
five more in reversion. 


2. No. possible settlement on 2. An English Dukedom. 
my part nor on Lord 
Yervey’s. 


3. All my Irish leasehold es- 3. The highest and most de- 
tates entailed long ago on sirable of all connexions. 
H. Bruce & his children ; 
on Theo. Bruce & his chil- 
dren ; on your 2 sons; on 
Caroline; & finally on 
Frederick with a clause in 
favour of myself. 


VOL. Il. I2* 


512 The Earl Bishop 


4.* Therefore poverty, famine, 4. Peace of mind for me and 
and omnipotent love for himself. 
her & her children. This is your brief, and I 
expect you to plead with 
eloquence the cause of 
us all. 


‘“He says his honour is engaged; so it is—not to entail 
poverty and famine on her & her younger children. Your late 
brother has left me a debt of £15,000 to pay—{£10,000 to his 
daughter and £5000 to his creditors ; judge of my means and 
believe me, as ever, yours ——”’ 


* The Bishop seems to have anticipated the poet Keats (‘‘ Lamia,’”’ Pt. II.): 
‘J ove in a hut, with water and a crust, 
Is, —Love forgive us !—cinders, ashes, dust.’ 


CELA EE Uk 


1796 


(aS the respective dates of the last two letters 

the King of Prussia and his entourage had left Pyrmont. 
Having temporarily benefited in health by his sojourn there, 
he returned to Berlin accompanied by his daughter and Countess 
Lichtenau. The Bishop, who remained abroad for some time 
at Pyrmont, wrote thence to the Countess on the 31st August, 
1796, a letter in which, notwithstanding its tone of gross flattery 
of the omnipotent favourite, he appears in one of his best 
characters, as a man of compassion—with a heart sincerely 
affected by the sufferings and deprivations of the unfortunate 
émigrés driven from their homes and plunged from affluence into 
poverty. The Countess, duly propitiated, is to exert her 
influence with the King to bestow a Prussian military appoint- 
ment on a young French refugee, in order that he may marry 
his fiancée, and thus make a whole family happy—another 
instance of the romantic sympathies of the Bishop in smoothing 
the course of true love. 


‘““ Pyrmont, 
y CONSE AOUt 11700: 


(“ Countess Lichtenau’s Apologie,” Vol. II., 17.) 

“Voila votre impayable lettre qui arrive dans ce moment ; 
et voici un billet qui m’est remis en méme temps par Madame la 
Présidente Corbusson, qui ne préside plus, pauvre femme! 
qu’a une misérable soupe, bien différente de celle qu’elle était 
accoutumée a donner. Ces diables d’émigrés s’imaginent 
que je peux tout avec vous, et qu’eux ou elles peuvent tout sur 
moi. Mais le diable m’emporte si je ne vous aime, vous et 
votre petit doigt, dix mille fois plus que tous et toutes ensemble ; 
et que je ne voudrais jamais que vous fissiez pour moi ce que 
vous ne pourriez faire avec la plus grande facilité. 

“Aprés cela, 11 faut rendre justice a cette irés estimable 


313 


514 The Earl Bishop 


famille ; elle a sacrifié 4 son devoir et a ses principes, entre | 


belle-mére et beau-fils au moins quatre mille livres sterlings en 
rente. M.de Woodford, notre commissaire, m’assure avoir vu, 
tant la mére que la fille madame la Comtesse Girangis, et cette 
derniére trés-grosse, faire 4 pied, au milieu de l’hiver, une route 
de vingt milles d’Allemagne, sans gémir, sans se plaindre, sans 
un seul repentir. Ce récit, je vous avoue, ma tendre amie, m’a 
fait saigner le coeur ; et les gouttes qui en sont écoulées étaient 
de bonnes guinées avec lesquelles j’ai le bonheur de leur faire 
une rente viagére d’environ cinquante livres sterlings par 
année. 

“La compagnie, ou méme heutenance de cavalerie qu’on 
supplie, est pour le promis de Mademoiselle Corbusson, sceur de 
Madame de Girangis, mais le mariage ne pourra se faire, si 
amant n’est pas placé. 

“Or, ma chére, s’1l est possible d’établir cette excellente 
demoisselle, aidez-moi a le faire, je vous supplie. Toute cette 
famille n’existe dans ce moment que de son industrie, et travaille 
depuis le matin jusqu’au soir. [1 n’y a que Madame Corbusson 
et Madame Girangis qui ne se donnent jamais l’indulgence de 
diner chez moi; elles en ont cependant bien besoin. La promise 
Mademoiselle Corbusson a un talent supérieur pour le dessin, 
et peint a marveille. Adieu, chére amie, Dés ce moment je ne 
puis parler que d’elles, tant je les respecte, et tant leur sort me 
tient a cceur! Je compte sur votre Omnipotence et encore 
plus sur votre bienveillance, si la chose est faisable. BrisTor.”’ 


Returning to his correspondence with his daughter Elizabeth, 
we follow the Bishop’s movements during a tour which he made 
from Pyrmont at this time to the seat of War, inspired by the 
temporary successes of the Austrian armies against the French. 


“Pyrmont (or Berlin), 
“Sept.” 14 gas 


“Tf I have anything to ask of you, my dearest Elizabeth, 
it is that, in case your brother gets a cough in the course of the 
winter, you beg of Lord Spencer* a frigate, & send him off 
directly to me at Naples. Ever yours, B. 

“ P.S.—Nothing can equal the déroute of the damned 
Blackguard, pilfering, plundering, pillaging Republicans. 
Neither Minden nor Rosbach can compare with it; all their 
Artillery, all their baggage, all their waggons loaded with con- 


* The second Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty in Pitt’s Government ; brother 
of Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire. 


The Earl Bishop 515 


tributions, all taken, we have here two Officers & the son of our 
apothecary just arrived from Frankfort, who not only confirm 
all this, who were ocular witnesses to these ourang-cutangs 
running like themselves without shoes, stockings, or breeches, 
and the exasperated peasants knocking them down, like real 
monkeys, their prototypes, with bludgeons, pitchforks, staves, 
all that came to hand—‘ furor arma ministrat’—12,000 dead 
on the road or the field, goo waggons loaded with wounded, that 
is 9,000 wounded & the Austrians in Francfort before the rear 
guard left it.”’ 


‘“ Francfort, 
‘“ Sept..26, 1706. 

“ DEAREST ELIZABETH, 

‘Here is the most consolatory Gazette I have read for 
a long time, and I inclose it as a receipt to cure you of a migraine. 
Nothing can be more brilliant than the successes of our two 
heros, the Archduke Charles, & the Prince Frederick of Orange, 
except their own exertions to obtain them. They are idolized 
by their armies and amply supported by their courage. The 
last accounts I have seen of Moreau’s defeat near Munich, carry 
the number of dead up to 15,000, the wounded 9,000 & the 
prisoners 7,000. If the Austrians can carry the fort of Kehl, 
Strasburg, entirely commanded by it, must fall, and then 
France will begin to feel the iron hand of Austria. 

“T leave this at 4 o’clock today, & shall reach Pyrmont in 
three days, which I left only to get a sight of the armies. From 
Pyrmont straight to Sans Soucr, where I pass a month with my 
dear Countess, and her beautiful, elegant, decent, mild, gentle 
Daughter. Would to God she were also mine. I have so set 
my heart & soul on this union that no event whatever could 
give me equal satisfaction, & when poor dear Frederick per- 
ceives the absolute impracticability of his own prospect, I have 
no doubt but he will, according to the tenor of his last letter, 
readily adopt mine. Ce qui me metira a la joie de mon ceur, 
for a young woman more calculated by nature as well as educa- 
tion, to make a virtuous man happy, I never yet saw. I am 
certain you would doat on her.” 


“* Cassel, 
‘Sept. 30, 1790. 
‘“ DEAREST ELIZABETH, 
“T am now returning to Pyrmont from my military 
expedition, for you know, child, we have Church militant as 
well as Church visible—Low Church and High Church. The 


516 The Earl Bishop 


affaire at Alten Kirchen near Dittembourg which is near Mar- 
burg was bien sanglante. The Ourang-Outangs or Tyger 
monkeys lost the few breeches they had. That modern hero, 
Prince Frederick of Orange (observe my dear, all the great men 
of this country are Fredericks) this hero, who united the phlegm 
of Hannibal with the activity of Scipio, cut them to pieces like 
a sailor’s biscuit. They have recrossed the Rhine, & evacuated 
Dusseldorf. On the Upper Rhine the bravery of the Austrian 
soldiers had taken Fort Kehl, which commands Strasburg; & 
the stupidity, indiscipline, & rapacity of the natives lost it. 
They were plundering the stores when they ought to have been 
raising the drawbridge—gquelles bétes—Laudau is known to 
have only 600 men & boys init. The Arch Duke marched with 
13,000 men to take it, & here ends my budget & letter, & so 
adieu dearest Eliza. 

“Tomorrow for Sans Souci, & my dearest Countess, de qu 
je soucie beaucoup in spite of my Goliath-Rival,* whom little 
David no longer fears.”’ 


The Bishop appears to have postponed his proposed visit 
to the King’s palace at Sans Souci. Perhaps on that account 
the Countess had made him some arch reproaches as to his too 
great devotion to his émigrées. Thus the Bishop in the following 
letter gallantly protesting that she alone occupies the centre of 
the “‘ vast castle of his heart’ asserts his right to accommodate 
in the remaining chambers of it, various others of his friends 
while the unfortunate had ever a place there. Meanwhile he 
remained at Pyrmont, constructing new carriage roads for the 
King’s future conveyance, in preparation for his Majesty’s 
next visit there. With regard to the extraordinary proposals 
which he makes to the lady in this and subsequent letters, it 
seems they were suggested in consequence of the King not 
having made adequate provision for her in the event of his death 
and with a view to piquing the procrastinating monarch into 
taking immediate action in the matter which had long been 
delayed. The Countess states in her “‘ Apologie’’ that she 
wishes her readers to know that “although not proud of the 
fact,’ she did not ever accept any of Lord Bristol’s offers, nor 
indeed is it likely she took them seriously. 

Having returned to Pyrmont from his ‘‘ military expedition,” 
he writes thence : 


* The immensely ponderous King Frederick William II.: ‘‘ Goliath.” ‘‘ Little David ”’ 
—the Bishop himself, who was slightly under the middle size. He was always ready to 
‘‘make game of everybody ”’ (as he said), including himself—a saving grace which serious 
critics have little understood or appreciated. 


| The Earl Bishop 517 


| “ce 3 Octobre, ’96.* 


“ Voyez donc, chére et trés-chére amie, si je m’occupe de 
vous! Et aprés cela, allez me reprocher des infidélités que je 
ne vous commets point, que je ne vous commettrai jamais, ni 
par goat, ni par inclination, ni par caprice, ni par séduction. 

“Mais, quoique mon cceur vous soit entiérement dévoué 
n’allez pas vous imagine que vous avez des droits sur le peri- 
cardium (demandez au Dr. Brown de vous expliquer cela). 
(Dr. Brown was the King’s English physician, and a noted person- 
ality in Berlin.) Je vous accorde volontiers le monarchie 
entiére sur tous les sentiments de mon cceur ; mais il faut que; 
j aye des entrailles pour les autres. Vous n’avez, par exemple, 
aucun droit sur ma bienfaisance ni bienveillance ; vous n’avez 
nul empire sur mon hospitalité amicale, ni de despotisme sur 
ma reconnaissance. Mon cceur est un grand, et, j’ose dire, 
vaste chateau, dont le corps-de-logis est tout 4 vous et a vous 
seul consacré; chaque appartement meublé de votre nom, de 
votre charmante figure, et décoré de votre physionomie tendre 
et spirituelle, Mais, chére amie, dans les appartements de ce 
chateau, il m’est permis de loger tant ceux que celles qui 
m’aiment, des Denis, des Hamilton, et méme des Odels. C’est 
la foresteria d’un couvent out les sourdes, borgnes, aveugles, 
et boiteuses ont droit de se loger. 

‘“ Aprés cette épisode, venons a mes occupations, Wilhelmine. 

Imo. Je viens de vous accomplir une délicieuse promenade 

sablée du meilleur gravier, pour vos promenades post- 
méridiennes, quand vous retournez de la papeterie. 

IIdo. J’ai fini a perfection la grande promenade sur la 

montagne pour votre jolie voiture et votre partie 
quarrée. (The King, the Countess, their daughter and 
himself.) 

IIlIo. J’ai commencé une seconde promenade intérieure 

a celle-la, pour les soirées moins longues, quand le 
soleil luicméme fait une course moins étendué que 
dans le solstice de juin. 

IVo. Mais surtout voila que je viens de recevoir une 

longue lettre de mon homme d’affaire a Londres, ot 
il me fait entrevoir une superbe terre, non loin de 
Londres, qui rend au moins 4 pour 100, c’est a dire que, 
pour 100,000 livres sterlings, nous aurons une rente de 
4,000 livres sterlings et par dessus le marché, un joli 
chateau, des jardins, des serres, et un parc a l’anglaise 
* “ Apologie,’’ Vol. II. Countess Lichtenau puts the following enigmatical note to 


this letter: ‘‘ Lord Bristol veut parler dans cette lettre de quelques agaceries qu’il a faites 
a la Princess R—ss’’ (Reuss). 


518 The Earl Bishop 


meublé de beaux daims, Voyez si tout cela vous arrange, 
et est faisable. 

“ Adieu, chére, aimable et tendre amie. BRISTOL. 

‘ Sams soucis, jamais sans soins.”’ 


On the same day our versatile hero addressed a letter to 
John Symonds which shows him, chameleon-like, in a totally 
different (and worthier) aspect, namely, his “ edifying ’’ one— 
to quote the Irish punsters. The Professor, having duly 
reported on the building of Ickworth, the Bishop, writing in 
acknowledgment, reverts to his architectural plans and theories, 
and amplifies his admirable system for the classification of 
pictorial schools. It may be noted that his appreciation of 
Albert Diirer indicates that he was a more enlightened con- 
noisseur than he has been credited with being, while his purchases 
of old German masterpieces give a finer side to his Prussian 
associations than the mere love of intrigue or social notoriety 
at the Court. 


‘“ Pyrmont, 
‘5, Octtemes 

“A thousand thanks, my worthy old friend, for all the 
attention you are so good as to give both to my Architects 
and architecture. Your opinion has great weight with them 
& your experience as well as taste fortifies your opinion. In 
all Europe I have not seen a style of building with which I am 
so enamoured as with my own. It has not a room too much 
or too little: it has no littlenesses in any corner nor any dis- 
proportion in any part: it will be both coolin summer & warm 
in winter & the Decorations will be of that sort ‘ gue adole- 
scentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant.’ The idea I have struck 
out of showing the historical progress of the art of Painting in 
all the five different schools of Germany & Italy I deem both 
happy & instructive. Galleries in general are both confused 
& uninstructive. Mine, by classing the authors under the 
different schools, will show the characteristick Excellence of 
each, instruct the young mind & edify the old. 


Venice Bologna Roman Florence Naples 

Coloring Composition Sentiment Drawing Extravagance 

Titian Guido Rafael M. Angelo Salvator Rosa 
Polimea. fer 


‘“J have been if possible more fortunate as well as more 
copious in the German than even the Italian School, having 


The Earl Bishop 519 


_ by means of the K. of Prussia acquired master pieces of Wohlge- 
muth, instructor of the Divine Homerican Albert Diirer. 


PARK. 


‘‘ Shillito having a lease of the P. for 12 years needs no other 
stimulus to his industry & judgement than that efficacious one 
his Interest. 


DRAINING. 


“There is no doubt but the moisture proceeds from springs 
as I witnessed . . . (top corner torn off original copy) in the 
year 1782 when I myself . . . very deep & saw a deluge issuing 
from each drain. What I fear is the Drought in summer. 


STAIRCASE. 


‘Need not be inconvenient if Mr. Sandys has taken space 
enough to multiply the steps - if not, ’tis his fault not mine. 

‘“T have fixed on 30 feet for the height of my parlour floor 
from observing that my Lungs always played more freely, 
my spirits spontaneously rose much higher in lofty rooms than 
in low ones, where the atmosphere is too soon tainted with the 
atmosphere of our own bodies, & also for the sake of throwing 
my attick-story (if possible) into St. Paul’s 3d Heaven. One 
of the principal pleasures I propose to myself in my new mansion 
is the renewal of our ancient, well found friendship, in recol- 
lecting our travels, recalling our common acquaintances, dis- 
cussing the subjects of our common studies, & above all in 
sharing with such an elegans formarum spectator as yourself 
the pleasure of busts, statues & Pictures. Pray indulge me 
rather than yourself & write sometimes to your faithful friend B.” 
(This letter is now in the possession of the Rev. Lord Manners 
Hervey.) 


The King of Prussia now had a return of illness at this 
time, which caused the Bishop to renew his prognostications 
that, in case of the King’s death, Countess Lichtenau would be 
ruined. Henow started for Berlin and en route amused himself 
by constructing castles in the air for her benefit. He wrote to 
her from Hanovre, October 22, 1796. 


‘“Chére adorable amie, les bruits de notre cher aimable et 
respectable roi alité, malade a l’extréme, me navrent le 
cceeur. Je tremble, je frisonne, Quelle privation pour toi en 
cas d’accident !—Toi accoutumée a toutes les jouissances dignes 


520 The Earl Bishop 


de ton élégant esprit et de ton spacieux coeur! Quelle privation 
pour toi chére amie, trop désinteressée! En tout cas je t’offre 
mon chateau en Angleterre, mes chateaux tutti quanti en Irlande. 
Je partagerai volontiers ma bourse avec une amie qui mono- 
polise mon coeur et toutes ses affections. 

‘Quant au roi, chére amie, sois sure que si sa maladie dérive 
d’une attaque d’hydropsie il n’y a au monde que lair sec et 
pur des montagnes et l’atmosphére vernal de Naples qui puissent 
le rétablir. Demande au brave et savant Doctor Brown si je 
n’ai pas raison. Mais ne demande a qui que ce soit, excepté a 
ton coeur amical, si tu dois accepter mes ofires. 

‘“En attendant, j’offre a M. le Comte (.e. the King, who 
travelled. incognito as Count Hohenstein), tout lappartement 
que Vhiver passé, je t’avais destiné. L’aire y est si pur, si salu- 
bre, qu’a deux reprises mon confrére |’évéque de Winchester 
y perdit sa fiévre tierce, la regagna dans la Chiaia,* et la perdit 
de nouveau chez moi. Le Chevalier Hamilton aprés sa grosse 
maladie y fut renvoyé par ordre exprés de son médecin, et y 
reprit ses forces et sa santé. C’est en effet le temple d’Escu- 
lape méme—et je me flatte que M. le Comte n’est pas si peu 
philosophe que de préférer chose quelconque a sa santé et a son 
bien étre ; car sans lui, ton ami de cceur et d’Ame, quelle serait 
ton existence ! 

‘“ Dans huit jours je descendrai a l’auberge a Berlin, et non 
chez toi dans cette crise, pour ne pas multiplier tes embarras ; 
et je passe par Berlin méme uniquement pour les diminuer, et 
pour te rendre la consolation d’un ami dont l’amitié est analogue 
alatienne. Chérissimé amie, adieu jusqu’au 28 Octobre.” 


* “ The Chiaia ’’—the district on the Quay of Naples. 


0d eS ed DD aU Sol AY 


1796 


Bishop now arrived at Sans Souci which “ Goliath ”’ 
had put at the disposal of “little David.” 

On his arrival there he dashed off a letter to Lady Elizabeth 
Foster, and it may be observed that in it he says not a word 
of his projected scheme for his son’s marriage, which, indeed, 
even the enthusiastic schemer himself may well have begun to 
realize would prove of very doubtful worldly advantage if the 
dropsical King of Prussia succumbed to his malady. What 
would then become of the Favourite ? And under a new régime 
would not all his fine dreams of royal connections come to 
naught ? Moreover, the young Countess de la Marche was not 
likely to wait for a backward suitor, and had already other 
matrimonial offers. Nor was the Bishop one to cry over spilt 
milk. In hilarious spirits and evident good humour with his 
present royal accommodation and surroundings, he writes : 


‘“ Sans Souci, & Sans Souci for ever. 


‘(My DEAREST ELIZABETH! At last on the 30th October— 
Sunday noon—here I am, truly worthy of this Philosophic 
Mansion—without care & almost without thought—so con- 
summately am I Germanised. Nothing, no nothing, not even 
the plains of Thetford or of Brandon can equal the aridness 
of this situation, nor even the Terrace of Weybridge surpass 
the beauty and luxuriancy of the prospect. Hesperian gardens 
surround the house: grapes worthy of our best hot-houses, 
pine apples as plenty as crabs in Devonshire or apples in Here- 
fordshire. We can eat 12,000 in a year, & every week at Pyr- 
mont we received a dozen or more. Then for game the Basse- 
cour at Chatsworth does not supply more fowl, ducks, geese 
& capon than we have—partridges, grouse, woodcock &c., 
but alas! Tomorrow we enter the eve of November, & | 


521 


522 The Earl Bishop 


have those accumulated Purgatories of the Alps to pass before 
I can enter that earthly paradise Naples. So tomorrow we 
decamp, bag & baggage, & no bad baggage is mine: geese, 
turkeys, ducks, shoulders & legs of mutton alternately, preceded 
by two graduate cooks, masters of arts, who arrive just one 
hour before us—guanto basta to find our dinner as ready as 
our appetites. Lo here is our diary—At seven, help Hyperion 
to his horse, and then mount our own ; trot away 15 or 18 miles 
sans y penser—find excellent coffee & better cream, & two eggs 
ready for a rapacious stomach with all its succus gastricus afloat 
ready to consume whatever it receives. . . . After two hours rest, 
but not of our Tongues, for we babble like starlings—though 
our converse be not quite sterling; on horse-back anew, & 
even so we despatch 15 or 18 miles more through this ocean of 
sand—with now and then a village to make the remaining 
solitude more sensible ; at close of day we close our labors & 
then here is our recompense : 
‘Soupe 
Bouilh of duck or goose 
Mutton, shoulder or leg,’ 


and a large bowl of punch in which we bury all fatigue, all 
thought, & then, as the clock strikes eight, enter the warming 
pan et tout est dit, and all night sleep in Elysium without one 
single ghost in our dreams, & so, sweet Elizabeth, not to put 
you to sleep, I close my narrative. Tomorrow for Berlin. 
Next day for Werlitz, next Dessau, Leipsig and Dresden &c. 
&c. Yours affectionately du fond de mon profond cceur.—B.”’ 


In this humorous effusion the Bishop, perhaps inten- 
tionally, gives no hint of the intrigues, political and social, he is 
bent on. The letter conveys a remarkable illustration of his 
usual manner of travelling, but he did not actually carry out 
the indicated course of his journeys until some weeks later, and 
in the interim he remained at Berlin. 

The Bishop had in fact more than one object to interest 
him in prolonging his visit to the Prussian Court. Mr. Hammond 
was at this moment at Berlin on a mission from the English 
Government the aim of which was to lead the King of Prussia 
to reunite with England against France; and certain pre- 
liminary questions were opened in this direction. The Bishop, 
as appears later when he was at Berlin, heard all about what 
was going on from the King himself privately, and in conse- 
quence seems to have had some reason for forming the opinion 
that Hammond muddled the business from the beginning. 


The Earl Bishop 523 


Countess Lichtenau states* that Lord Bristol constantly corre- 
sponded with Pitt, and this no doubt he did from Berlin at this 
time. She adds that he had the greatest admiration for the 
English statesman so much younger than himself who often 
addressed him in his letters as “‘my second father.’’ Un- 
fortunately none of this correspondence exists. 

With regard to the social side of the Bishop’s visit to Berlin, 
a very unfavourable picture of him has been drawn by aman 
who was thrown with him at this time in Berlin, and who was 
evidently not unbiased by personal feelings of hostility. This 
was Colonel Dampmartin, a Frenchman who for many years 
had occupied the post of tutor to the King’s children by Countess 
Lichtenau, a devoted and a jealous partisan of the lady and 
sincerely attached to the King himself, of whom he has left 
too flattering a portrait. With these feelings it was only natural 
that he should resent the newly-acquired influence of the officious 
Bishop over the Countess, which threw his longer and more tried 
services into the background. 

‘“‘ A fatal destiny,” he says, ‘“‘ made the Countess meet with 
Lord Bristol, Bishop of Londonderry, who was remarkable for 
a revolting combination of witty knowledge, pride, ostentation, 
meurs-libres, causticity, contempt for les convenances, and 
irreligion,’ and who “had usurped a certain degree of con- 
sideration, thanks to his effrontery and his riches. Adroit in 
seizing the appearance of spending money with lavish hands, 
he at the same time satisfied his secret bent towards avarice. 
His mouth always filled with the maxims of our modern philo- 
_ sophers, he contradicted and tormented all those whose services 
- brought them into contact with him ; while affecting to despise 
_ the distinctions of birth, rank, and fortune, he was of an in- 
_ supportable haughtiness ”’ (according to this Frenchman, so were 
all Englishmen, with the exception of a few, such as the Bishop’s 
humble friends, Mr. and Mrs. Denis, ‘‘ simple, honest, virtuous 
people’). Lord Bristol’s head, we are told, was “ always 
excited ’’ (exaltée), was “‘ transformed into a veritable volcano 
when he came out from table.’ In Berlin he habitually wore 
the portrait of the Countess in a medallion enriched with 
diamonds. ‘‘ Lord Bristol,’ continues the same writer, “ was 
_ undoubtedly the man of most note among those who composed 
the Court of the Countess Lichtenau. . . . His brilliant exis- 
tence, his wit and his boldness soon assured him of an almost 
absolute influence over a woman by nature very confiding 
and rather giddy (légere). Once assured of his ascendancy 


* “ Apologie der Grafin Lichtenau,” translated into French and abridged as 
“Mémoires,’’ but not to be confounded with the spurious “ Bekantniss.’’ 


524 The Earl Bishop 


he had little difficulty in persuading her that her august friend — 


was wanting in consideration and generosity to her.” Not 
only was it through the malign influence of Lord Bristol, backed 


by Lady Hamilton (declares Dampmartin), that Ritz was made 


a Countess—thus bringing upon her the hatred of the German 


nobility, who had befriended her before she sought to become 


one of themselves—but now he urged her to claim a large 
settlement from the King, constantly reproaching her with 


excessive neglect of her own interests, such as he declared 
bordered on madness. The lady, however, “ penetrated with | 


gratitude’”’ for all the favours which the King bestowed on her 


“without her asking for them,’ could not bring herself to 
make any demands upon his Majesty. ‘“‘ The counsels, the 
prayers, the scoldings of the officious lord did not give her the > 


desire nor the assurance to plead her personal interests. Then 
the Prelate opened the breach himself, and had the boldness 


to say to the Monarch, ‘If your Majesty suffers any longer 


that the Countess de Lichtenau remains exposed to the danger 


of some day experiencing want and dependence, I will fulfil — 
the sacred duties of friendship, I will make her a legal donation | 
of a very pretty castle, and of a property of two thousand © 
pounds sterling of rent,’ an offer which, as Dampmartin re- © 
marks, Lord Bristol had, of course, no real intention of carrying © 


c¢ 


out. The result of this manceuvre it was “ easy to foresee.” 


The King “ felt himself grievously hurt, and being of a generous © 
nature he could only soothe his annoyance’”’ by lavish settle- — 
ments on the Countess, which included the residence she occupied © 
at Berlin, the Palace of Charlottenburg, considerable lands and © 


a large sum of money. 


The Bishop concluded his visit to Berlin on November 23, — 
1796, that is, over three weeks after his arrival at Sans Souci. | 
According to Dampmartin, after having boasted during some — 
days of the success of his audacious step, Lord Bristol recognized — 
by signs certain and numerous that if his society little amused — 


the King, his attentions to his divine Countess began to weary — 
her. He announced his resolution to depart for Italy, and said — 


to the King with cynical boldness: “‘ Sire, je vais retrouver leg 


cher Naples dont la lune rechauffe plus que ‘le soleil A Berlin.” 


What seems to have been a harmless freedom enough — 


was doubtless magnified by the servile courtiers into an instance 
of the outrageous insolence of an English lord. Whatever 


¥ 
- 


of truth there may have been in the report that the Bishop — ‘ 


was no longer welcome at Berlin, he certainly continued after — 


We 


his departure to correspond as warmly as ever with the Coun- : 
tess. Moreover, a statement that has been made that Lord | 





- 


The Earl Bishop 525 


Bristol after leaving Berlin never saw the lady again is untrue,* 
for we find him one of the royal party at Pyrmont in the fol- 
lowing year on the occasion of the King of Prussia’s second and 
last sojourn at that health resort. 

_ A breakfast set of Dresden china, adorned with medallions 
of Frederick William II. and his Queen, a gift from the King 
to the Bishop, is now at Downhill. It was probably presented 
on the occasion of the Bishop’s last visit to Berlin. A Dresden 
cup and saucer with a similar medallion was at the same time 
given to Mr. Lovell. t 


* Vehse’s ‘‘ Court of Prussia’’ (page 338), who, however, gives the correct date of the 
Bishop’s departure from Berlin as November 23, 1796. 


} In the possession of Geraldine, Marchioness of Bristol, to whom it was given by Miss 
Lovell, granddaughter of the Bishop’s Chaplain. 


VOL, II. I3 


GHAPTH RAGE, 


1796 


HEN the Bishop left Berlin for the last time, he started 
on the course of travel which he had planned several 
weeks before at Sans Souci. After passing a night at Werlitz 
and Dessau respectively, he arrived at Leipsig on the way to 
Dresden. Travelling in the way he has described—his cooks 
going before him with supplies of mutton and geese—he was 
attended by his Chaplain Lovell, and also, it seems, by some 
other companions more talkative than the clergyman. Damp- 
martin supplies a burlesque touch to the singular picture of the 
Bishop on his journeys: ‘“ With a rather numerous retinue he 
travelled by short stages, but his horses in this sort of caravan 
were wretched jades and his carriage (caléche) resembled the 
cart of a quack-doctor. His cook, who always went in advance, 
prepared his lodgings. He (the Bishop) used to say gaily: ‘I 
arrive provided with the appetite of a curé, but I find the 
dinner of a bishop.’’’ The Bishop himself used generally to travel 
on horseback. Countess Lichtenau states in her “ Apologie ”’ 
that Lord Bristol wrote to her from Leipsig, November 27, 1796, 
‘‘ one of his longest letters,’ and that it was “‘ a treatise of irre- 
ligion.”’ As she does not quote the letter, beyond the first 
sentence: ‘‘ Au diable, ma chére Wilhelmine avec ton roman 
d’ame !’’’—there are no means of testing her statement. “ He 
reproaches me,’ she says in German, “ with being a limited 
philosopher, a weak reasoner, and of having had a vicious 
education (I think he meant to say a religious one). He 
argues,’ she continues, ‘in the spirit of La Mettrie in his 
Homme Machine’; ‘‘I do not communicate to my readers 
these arguments because, since Kant, he is no longer in 
fashion, but I should have been wrong not to mention this 

at all.’’ 
She adds that from these, her criticisms of Bristol, the public 

526 


The Earl Bishop 527 


will be the better able to judge of the sincerity of the praises 
which, in other respects, she bestows on him. 

On proceeding to Dresden the Bishop met there his friend, 
Madame de Recke. (An interesting life of this lady by Brunier 
was published in 1873.) This worthy and remarkable woman 
who, after being separated from the Baron de Recke, was 
everywhere known as Madame “ Elise,’”’ had a notable history. 
Being inclined to mystic studies, she at one time had been 
the dupe of the charlatan Cagliostro, but had afterwards written 
a book exposing his impostures. The book so attracted the 
admiration of the Empress Catherine II. that she forthwith 
invited the authoress to Petersburg and gave her large estates 
in Russia where Madame de Recke (who was a sister of the 
Duchess of C——) embarked on philanthropic enterprises. 
While the Bishop was at Dresden news was received of the 
sudden death of the Empress on November 17, 1796, by which 
his friend was deprived of her beloved patroness. The Bishop 
writes to Countess Lichtenau : 


‘““A Dresde, 
lu4y DeouoG: 

‘“ Je comptais partir ce matin, chére amie, pour mon pélerin- 
age d’Italie—mais voila la fatale nouvelle qui arrive de St. 
Pétersburg et ma tendre amie Madame de Recke, en est au 
_ désespoir et me supplie de passer encore 24 heures pour |’écouter 

et la consoler—car elle a perdu son amie, sa... et sa Bien- 
_ faitrice.”’ 


The pertinacity with which the Bishop in this letter reverts 
_to the subject of the King’s provision for the Countess seems 
_to indicate some delay in the arrangements; or perhaps the 
underlying intention was to get more and more out of the 
susceptible but indolent monarch. A proposal that the King 
should purchase for the Countess the Principality of Piedmont 
from the reigning Prince seems to have originated with the 
officious Bishop, though it is fair to the lady herself to add that 
she declared after the death of the King that she had declined 
the royal offer, her acceptance of which would have raised her 
_to the position of a princely potentate. 
While comparing the munificence of the deceased Empress 
to a new friend with the alleged neglect by the King of Prussia 
of an old one, the Bishop continues : 


“Notre cher Roy, Frederick Guillaume, est un énigme pour 
_~moi—je ne saurais m’expliquer ce coeur tendre, compatissant, 


VOL. I. 13% 


528 The Earl Bishop | 


sensible a l’excés, bien faisant a l’outrance. Et comment. 
laccorder avec cette insouciance sur le sort d’une personne qu'il 
s'est attachée pendant tant d’années, avec qui il vit, comme. 
il a toujours vécu, dans l’amitié la plus estroite et amitié la | 
plus épanchante—une amie qu’il nourrit journellement dans 
le luxe le plus élégant, a4 qui par habitude il fait une nécessité 
du plus brillant superflu, pour risquer de la laisser, par un coup 
de la main de Dieu, dans l’abandon le plus triste et le plus 
total? Que veut dire, que peut dire, cette insouciance .. ¥ 
mysterieuse ?—et qu’elle peut devenir fatale!—. . . qu'un 
maréchal de Broglie, un Prince de Broglie, et tant d’émigrés 
(qui ne lui tiennent en rien que par le Lien naturel entre des: 
coeurs navrés avec un cceur noble et compatissant) sont ras- 
sasiés par ses Actes aussi généreux que bien placés !-—tandis 
qu’une Catherine II. voit pour la premiére fois une nouvelle 
sujette, récemment acquise comme Madame de Recke et touchée 
également de ses vertus et de ses infortunes, lui fait dans son 
premier épanchement, un traitement digne de la donatrice comme 
du receveur de quatre mille ducats par an, et, de plus, un 
don gratuit de deux mille ducats pour mettre ses terres en 
valeur ! ; 
‘Voila de Pamitié, comme la grace de Dieu, incovenantée, 
efficace, et suffisante! Mais, chére Wilhelmine, sois sire que 
si ton ancien ami l’abandonne, le nouveau, plus sensible a ton. 
mérite, quoique moins capable de te récompenser, ne fera 
pas de méme. Et quand tes malheurs tes disgraces cuisantes, 
et la sensibilité, a  outrance, auront réduit ta santé a l’extrémité, 
ta vie méme aun fil ; que tu seras réduite a l’alternative de mourir 
a Berlin ou de vivre 4 Londres, je te promets un traitement 
de mille frédérics d’or, comme gage de mon amitié, et recompense 
faible de tes vertus. Alors, quand il ne sera plus temps, on 
pleurera ta mort politique ; et, en cas qu’on s’agisse de t’ériger 
un tombeau, je leur fais cadeau de l’ épitaphe,—Ci git la victime 
d’une amitié de vingt ans, déja ressuscitée par une amitié de 
vingt mois été.”’ 
Apart from a mere love of meddling, the Bishop seems 
in all this business to have aimed at putting Countess Lichtenau 
under such obligation to himself that out of gratitude she would 
in return lend the full weight of her influence towards his political _ 
manceuvres. | | 
A series of letters which he wrote at this time to his daughter, 
Lady Elizabeth Foster—herself an influence in English political 
circles—points to his ambitions in the above direction, and shows | 
that he designed to steer the policy of Prussia by means of the 
Favourite and the King ; while his son Frederick—a young man ) 


The Earl Bishop 529 


of promising talent and a true Hervey*—as he has been called— 
was to be induced, since he would not be the King’s son-in-law, 
at least to become accredited as English Envoy to Berlin, or to 
Dresden, and thus secure English supremacy in Prussian and 
Furopean state-craft. Such was the Count Bishop’s castle 
in the air ! 

To this we find him now confabulating with Mr. Elliot, 
the English Minister at Dresden. He writes to Lady Eliza- 
beth : 


‘ Dresden, 
“ December 6, 1796. 


“ Did I not tell you, my dearest Elizabeth, that they would 
bungle the affair with the King of Prussia ? & so it has hap- 
pened. Mr. Elliot here has assured me he had seen all Mr. 
Hammond’s papers, & to himself it was clear as daylight that 
the King & his Ministers had acceded to all the preliminaries, 
whilst Mr. Hammond, who has a much greater hesitation in his 
brain than in his speech was persuaded the preliminaries have 
not been acceded. 

“The King himself, Bishops Werder, & Mollendorf were all 
of Mr. Elliot’s opinion, & the King himself told me, in 
presence of my friend, that he never was so surprised as when he 
heard that Mr. Hammond was decamped. I repeat it to you— 
let them send Frederick to Frederick William. I will give 
them la grace prevenante with my Countess, & I will pledge 
myself he, with his talents, his manners, & his activity, will 
render it la grace efficace. ’Tis a shame, dearest Elizabeth, that 
Frederick, with such endowments as his, both natural & acquired, 
should sacrifice all to indolence, prepossession, & mere Egoism, 
whilst by entering into a career equally suited to his birth, to 
his talents, & to his education he can render himself so exten- 
sively useful to the noblest country that ever did or ever can 
exist, respectable to his friends, & highly, permanently and 
solidly serviceable to himself. Add to all that it is inconsistent 
with that noble character of independence which I suppose him 
to possess, to throw himself on the shoulders of a father already 


* In a curious letter among the ‘‘ Dropmore Papers ’”’ (Hist. MSS. Commission, Vol. VIT., 
page 5), addressed to Lord Grenville, 1801, by Count Woronzoff (who had been Russian 


Ambassador in London), the Count describes Frederick, Lord Hervey, as ‘‘ Hervey, Hervey — 


et Archi-Hervey ”’ and for that reason “‘ trembles ’’ lest his brother-in-law, Lord Hawkes- 
bury, should name him Ambassador to Petersburg. Woronzoff says he has known Hervey 
intimately from a child, having known his late mother twenty-four years ago in Rome, 
and ever since “ resté constamment en liaison avec elle.’? Lady Bristol frequently in 
her letters mentions her liking for the Count, whom she evidently looked upon as a true 
friend. 


530 The Earl Bishop 


sinking under the weight, whilst by a manly & vigorous exer- 


a Sod 


tion of talents, for which he is responsible, he might prove an © 


honour to his country, a comfort to his family, & a solace to 
himself. : 


“Lord Elgin is tired to death of Berlin, & would be so of | 
any other station where he could not exercise his fox-hunting ~ 


spirit, but Ratisbon was the station I wished your brother to 
accept, at this hour the very best diplomatic school in Europe, 
where the interests of all the empire are daily discussed, where 
he might learn his lesson in the best company. Mr. Elliot, 


who began with those rudiments, assured me yesterday it was © 


to that school he owed all the diplomatick knowledge he 
possessed, & regretted infinitely with me that Frederick had 
declined what he should have conjugated. He empowered me 
at the same time to say that if Frederick could procure him 
any desirable exchange, he would resign Dresden to him. At 
all events, be sure your brother is not aware of the false step 
he is taking by declining the diplomatick line ; according to all 
experience, he cannot miss with his Birth, his Talents, his con- 
nexions & his assiduity becoming Secretary of State in ten or 
twelve years. Either he is, or he is not, calculated for public 
speaking ; if he is, ministry will be as glad as he to give him a 
Semestre for the Parliament months to avail themselves of him ; 
if he is not, he cannot be better employed than at the desk, 
where he has already given proof of powers in handling Mr. 
Thomas Paine.* And so adieu, dearest Elizabeth. I have 
done my duty ; let Frederick now do his. Pour mot, 7’1rat mon 
train, & if I cannot be the Cesar nor the Cicero, I will be a less 
splendid but a more useful citizen, the Lucullus of my time— 
the Midwife of Talents, Industry, & hidden virtue. Sweet 
Elizabeth Adieu. 

“A luminous idea has struck my mind which I only propose 
to you, & of which you may dispose as you please ; if your 
eldest sont was sent abroad whilst I remain so, he might live 
with me, & Mr. Lovell for one or two hundred a year might be 
his mentor—no one better for it, either for morals or intellect 
of your son. Ido but propose ; do you dispose.” 

At the end of December he is still at Dresden and writes 
to Lady Elizabeth : 


* Thomas Paine (1737-1809), the well-known anti-Christian writer ; author of “ The 
Rights of Man,” ‘“‘ The Age of Reason,”’ etc. 


+ Frederick Thomas Foster, born 1777. M.P. for Bury St. Edmunds in 1817. Died 
1857. Like his grandfather the Bishop, he was noted as an amusing talker. The late 
Lady Arthur Hervey used to say that he made the servants laugh so by his jokes at dinner 
that they could scarcely wait at table. 


eS ee 4 


The Earl Bishop 581 


‘“ Dresden, : 
‘December 28, 1796. 

“T do not expect peace to be signed by that blundering 
attorney Lord Malmesbury, too cunning to deceive, & too 
crafty to be trusted ; but in case I should be disappointed and 
the French tygers submit to terms, I think it is worth Frederick's 
while in time to speak for the embassy to the Hague which is 
so near to England, he is almost at home, and may even be so in 
24 hours ; but here are my politicks, & if ever you canvass with 
the Duke & Duchess (of Devonshire) or other Plemipo, pray 
start the question & let me know the result. My idea is to 
annihilate Holland as a blackguard, mean, low, shabby, rival 
power, & sink her, as she was formerly, into the 17 provinces 
of Brabant, &c. &c. then give them all together to Bavaria, 
& the Palatinate to the old Elector, an ignorant enthusiast, 
& a Papist, whose nonsense, (as Bishop Burnet says) suits their 
nonsense. 

“Brabant will at length have a resident Sovereign. The 
Palatinate East of the Rhine I would give to a young branch 
of our Royal family as being Protestant ; but west of the 
Rhine, & including all the iniquitous, profligate, debauched, 
bishoprics and their infamous chapters, I would cede to the 
Republic on condition, & for this condition I would spend the 
last drop of blood & money, that they cede all the Provinces 
south of the Loire to Louis 18. Here is France as a maritime 
& commercial nation sunk for ever; the two governments 
eternally at war together & doing the business for England ; 
but if France is to remain entire—Oh! judge of her future 
energy by her past, & dread the fatal moment when that restless 
people, having recruited their strength, pour all upon England. 
At all events dear Elizabeth, I hope your torfid friends, for such 
I must call them, will not forget to secularize the two very 
lucrative but tyrannical bishopricks of Paderborn & Hilders- 
heim in favour of two younger sons of our Royal family. The 
Bishops expect it, the people pray for it, & all Westphalia applaud 
it. Perhaps that log Lord Grenville does not know that 
they exist, nor has ever heard of the secularization of the opulent 
bishoprick of Magdeburg in favour of the House of Branden- 
burg after the 30 years war, for by all accounts from my diplo- 
matic friend a more ignorant blockhead does not exist, but 
dearest Elizabeth, in case these torpid gentlemen assume the 
courage to secularize Hildersheim & Paderborn, let them not 
overlook the small, low-lived, ignorant convent of English 
Benedictines at Lambsheim (?) worth £3,000 a year in the heart 
of that Bishoprick, & now possessed by a whole sty of grovelling 


5382 The Earl Bishop 


grunting, Epicurean hogs drawn out of the counties of Lanca- 


shire, Westmoreland, and West Riding of York. If your 


friends have the courage to look at such an enterprise, you may > 


give them a memorandum for their consideration. 


‘In the Bishoprick of Paderborn there is another Convent : 


of Dominicans which I have also visited, and may be worth 
£2,500 a year, & is in the centre of the Bishoprick. The Act 


of Secularization depends entirely upon the Emperor, who — 
can refuse England nothing. The Chancellor of Hanover | 
assured me that to his knowledge that corrupt, abandoned, © 


scoundrel Lord Bute had absolutely the offer of secularization 
in 1762, but refused it. ’Tis supposed he pocketed £20,000 
for this infamous refusal, & the younger sons in consequence 
remain a burden on England. Oh! if your Brother were now 
Minister at Berlin what a blow he might strike! since I know 
for certain & past a doubt that my landlord of Sans Soucs 
(Frederick William II.) wishes nothing so much as to join in 
crushing the tzgres-singes (the French). What a blunder the 


sending of Hammond, whom nobody could understand, & who — 


did not understand either himself or others, & as to the present.” 
. . . (Rest of letter missing). 


The Earl Bishop now propounded a scheme for partitioning 
France into two, by the concerted intervention of the European 
Powers—England and Prussia in particular. One part— 
northwards from the Loire—was to be a republic, and the other 
—southwards—a monarchy under Louis XVIII., with loyalist 
Toulon for its capital. By this method France, divided and 
disorganized, was to be rendered innocuous to her European 
neighbours, the martial craving for conquest of her republican 
generals was to be stemmed while the southern portion was to 
sink to the position of a second-rate kingdom. In three words— 
‘ Divide et Impera ”’ was to be the motto of the new enterprise 
which had already been broached at Berlin and Dresden, where 
it had been “ more than well received.” 

His sojourn at Dresden concluded, he discloses this Machia- 
vellian dream to his daughter Elizabeth, whose position in the 
inner circle of Devonshire House had been established for over 
ten years. 


“Plauen in Southern Saxony, ce 12 Jan.,1797. (From “ The 
Two Duchesses.’’) 

“T send you, my dearest Elizabeth, as to one of the few 
persons capable of relishing a great idea worthy of either 
Cromwell or Chatham, but perhaps unintelligible to your dull 


The Earl Bishop 538 


formal, pedantick, uncomprehending & incomprehensible Minis- 
ter of Foreign Affairs, (Lord Grenville), to which department he 
is as inadequate as to the Home, witness the insults offered to 
the British Lion by the Cubs of Genoa, or the Foxcs of Tuscany, 
—I send you, I say, a copy of my letter to Frederick William 
(King of Prussia)—the letter is of course addressed to Countess 
Lichtenau, though intended for the King.—which has been 
infinitely better understood, & far more relished than by that 
impenetrable & unpenetrating blockhead Lord Grenville : 


‘“‘Chére amie, je te confie par une main trés sire un projet, 
qui m’est d’autant plus cher que je me flatte qu'il s’agit des 
véritables intéréts d’un des plus vertueux souverains de 
L’Europe entiére et sans contredit des intéréts de celui a qui 
par goat, comme par reconnaissance je suis le plus attache. 
C’est beaucoup dire pour un Anglais, et pour un Anglais aussi 
fier que moi. 

“Tl s’agit donc, chére amie, de mettre la France hors de 
combat: cette nation inquiéte et inquiétante sera tranquille 
pour au moins un siécle. 

“Tl s’agit de la partager en deux—France Républicaine et 
France Monarchique, l’une au nord de la Loire, autre au midi. 

“La Nature s’y préte, et la Politique s’y préte, car au sud 
de la Noire, il n’y a pas Fortresse quelconque si vous en exceptez 
La Rochelle—et Antibes et Toulon, toutes les deux dégarnies 
de leur artillerie pour souvenir au siége de Mantoue. 

‘“ Ajoutez que la proportion des Aristocrates a toujours été 
et subsiste toujours d’une supériorité énorme a la proportion 
Démocratique. 

“Ta France dans ce moment est terrassée; elle est aux 
abois, et A peine peut-elle se soutenir. Pour effectuer ce projet 
de partition il y’a deux partis a prendre. 

“Ou de s’allier avec le nouvel Empereur de Russie et, de 
concert avec lui et avec lui seul, sur un principe purement 
_ Monarchique conduire le Roi Louis 18, avec la petite mais 
brave et loyale armée de Condé a travers la Suisse et le Piemont 
sans facon quelconque, et le proclamer Roi de la France mérid- 
ionale tout en entrant de la Provence. 

“Ou bien de s’allier avec l’Angleterre qui fera la moitié 
des frais, et aideroit avec sa flotte pour seconder le méme 
systeme. 

‘Mais je crains un Cabinet aussi lache, aussi €quivoque, 
aussi indécis que celui de Londres, et je préférerois toujours un 
Cabinet dont l’alliance seroit sympatique, et ot les intéréts de la 
Monarchie seroient communs aux deux Monarques. 


534 The Earl Bishop 


‘““ Alors je prétens que d’aprés les connaissances que 25 ans 
de voyages m’ont donné, les frais de la guerre doivent étre 
annuellement aux dépens de la France méridionale. 

“Dans les Années 1766 et 1767 j’assistais a la tenue (Assem- 
bly) des états de Languedoc. 

“Cette Province accorda au Roi chaque année la somme de 
£500,000 livres sterlines. Les Provinces de Guienne et de 
valeur de £600,000 livres sterlines. 

“Les états de Dauphiné et de Provence avec la ville de 
Marseilles accordaient au Roi la somme de {£500,000 livres 
sterlines—dessous donc. 


PRATISUBCOO iiheta SoHE) Oo. Ue AIS ace een” cae 500,000 
CAAENIG With HOP TAA ee Tee i ery aka Be 600,000 
DAD AINE awe Aye ee. ost ere Pe es ee 500,000 

£1,600,000 


‘““Doublons cette somme, le droit de guerre, nous aurons la 
somme compléte £3,200,000 sterlines. Je me flatte qu’avec 
les contributions ordinaires cela suffirait pour entretenir les 
deux armées. 

“Tl s’agit a4 présent du bien qui résulterait 4 votre ami 
(the King of Prussia) de ce projet, et du Mal qui doit résulter 
de sa négligence. 

“ Par la division de la France en Républicaine et en Mon- 
archique elle devient Puissance trés secondaire, par conséquent 
hors de combat—encore plus si le caractére inquiet de la nation 
faisait remuer la République. Voila le Monarque tout de suite 
a son aise pour revendiquer ses anciens droits, et lui arracher 
quelque province—en tout cas son aide comme Puissance 
secondaire serait trés-mince, trés-équivoque, et peu a craindre. 

‘““Mais—laissez échapper ce moment et que la République 
reste—une et indivisible—quel en est le triste et fatal résultat ? 

‘La France République devient mille fois plus énergique, 
plus terrible, plus dangéreuse, et plus séduisante durant la 
paix que durant la guerre. 

‘“Les commis voyageurs, les négotians, les émissaries, les 
apotres de la liberté répandront a droit et a gauche ces principes 
de la liberté qui étouffent toute liberté et trés strement 
bouleverseront les Monarchies actuelles et les gouvernmens 
Monarchiques. 

“Et dites-moi quel sera l’antidote a ce poison ? 

“Les pays-Bas seront-ils cédés 4 la République ou non ? 
S’uls sont cédés, quel colosse de Puissance, et ot: est donc Wesel ? 
Juliers ? Cleves? En cas qu’ils ne sont pas cédés trois ans 
aprés la paiz voila le duplicat du traité de ce Fanfaron Kaunitz. 





The Ear] Bishop 535 


‘“Cédez-moi les Pays-Bas, dira la République qui vous 
chicanent tant, vous insultent tant, et fonciérement vous rendent 
si peu, et je verse toutes mes forces pour vous donner un équi- 
valent dans la Silésie, la Pologne &c. 

‘‘Mais on me répliquera—La Russie ne le permette pas— 
La Russie l’a déja permis une fois; donc la Russie le peut 
encore permettre. I] ne lui faut qu’un Ministre corrompu-dans 
une Nation la plus corrompue de toute |’Europe-outre en 
accorder 4 la Russie pour sa neutralité Dantzig &c. et qui me 
répondra de son amitié fidéle ? 

‘“Vaut il la peine de risquer les événements de la guerre de 
Sept ans? Ne vaut-il pas mieux secouer ses plumes, aiguiser 
son bee, et déployer ses griffes, et fondre, une fois pour tout, sur 
cet ennemi abattu-terrassé-mais toujours inquiet, perfide, et 
rusé, et lui 6ter tout pouvoir de se relever—Divide et impera.”’ 


‘Dearest Elizabeth,—My friend (i.e., Countess Lichtenau) 
tells me it has made the deepest impression (i.e., on the King of 
Prussia) and raised the most vigorous resolutions, but alas! I 
know him. One hour in the lap of his Danseuse,* & he lies there 
the shadow of a King—yet at such a moment, if your brother, 
with all his energy & all his insinuation, was on the spot to keep 
this momentary energy alive to secure to his interests she who 
now opposes hers,+ to back all my friends’ exertions—to warm 
this lump of inert matter (the King of P.) and breathe into ita 
permanent fire with 233,000 men at his back—at this critical 
decisive moment, what might not this Colossus effect, & what 
honor to himself, and what permanent, extensive substantial 
benefit to his country (England) might not Frederick achieve ? 
but I am talking to the deaf. Dearest Elizabeth make your 
friend speak out if possible, to the purport of this Memorial— 
read well yourself, read with Frederick—state the objections— 
at Dresden & Berlin the idea has more than pleased, perhaps 
the magnitude of the objects deters. It would not have deterred 
Lord Chatham, but, alas, he did bestride this narrow world 
like a stage Colossus and these petty men do but peep between 
his legs.”’ 


In a letter to Countess Lichtenau, February 15, 1797, he 
enlarges further on the dangers to Germany of the new republic 
adjacent to her borders—-‘ a powerful republic is always more 


* “ Hig danseuse,” Mlle. Schulskey of the corps de ballet, “a handsome, blooming, 
brunette without much mind,” the last of the King’s mistresses, the declared favourite 
under the chief favourite. (Vehse’s ‘‘ Court of Prussia.’’) 


+ He means that the danseuse was physically an enervating influence on the decadent 
King. | 


536 The Earl Bishop | 


active, more restless, more ardent, than a monarchy. I appeal 
to Rome, Carthage, Athens, Tyre and Sidon in ancient times, 
to Tunis, Algiers, Holland in the last century, & to France at 


present. Every time a demagogue (tyrant) wishes to disen- | 


tangle himself from opposition he plunges his country into war — 
as did Alcibiades, Hannibal, Sylla, & de Witt. How then 
emasculate a people ? bya Pompadour, a Maintenon, a Cardinal 


Dubois, a Richelieu and so many others—My system then is to_ 
divide France & to weaken her—Quelle dose de Politique, ma | 
chére Wilhelmina,” he winds up, “a toi qui n’es rien moins que > 
Politique—mais moi, Sénateur Anglais, je ne réve a d’autre 


chose—si ce n’est que toi, chére, aimable, excellente amie.” 


—— so 


ee ee ee 


CHAP TIWR GV. 


1797 


NSIGHT into the relations of the Bishop with his chap- 
lain at this stage of their travels is supplied by the latter 
in a letter to Countess Lichtenau, who prefaces her publica- 
tion of it by saying that Mr. Lovell’s gentleness and amenity 
had gained her friendship. This it appears was of a fraternal 
character, the reverend gentleman being in the habit of ad- 
dressing the lady as his “‘ dear sister ’’ while, to accentuate the 
nearness of the relationship they had assumed, they playfully 
addressed each other as Henri and Henriette, their real christian 
names being respectively Trefusis and Wilhelmina. It is 
likely the intimacy between his chaplain and his “ divine 
Countess ’’ was not relished by the Bishop, while, to judge by 
Lovell’s letter, the gout from which both ecclesiastics suffered 
at Plauen affected the temper of the one and the spirits of the 
other—‘‘ weak spirits and a dejected mind ”’ being, as the Bishop 
says later, characteristic of Lovell who, he adds, however, was 
“near seven years with me without a single altercation, suspicion 
or jealousy.”’ Although the Bishop retained no ill feeling, it is 
evident that he had little consideration for the sensitive tem- 
perament of his companion, who possessed none of the boldness 
to defend himself such as he had so much admired in Goethe’s 
attitude towards the Bishop at Jena. Like a true coward he 
revenged himself behind his patron’s back, and with not the 
less malice that he veiled it under a pretence of delicacy and 
respect. Corresponding with the Countess in secret lest the 
Bishop’s ‘‘ jealousy,’ arising from the “ littleness of his soul,” 
be aroused, the chaplain pours forth to his adopted sister 
the pent-up bitterness of his feelings, which, perhaps, though 
unsuspected by the Bishop, were not altogether innocent of 
jealousy of a certain Mr. de Savigny, a French émigré, who had 
lately joined the episcopal party and who absorbed his lord- 
ship’s attention while Lovell was, or felt himself, neglected. 


937 


ee as eto 


538 The Earl Bishop 


After leaving Plauen, and on reaching the next stage of the’ ' 
journey southwards, he writes : 


S eee 


“Munich, 
‘22 Janvier, 170700 

‘“‘Enfin ma trés chére sceur, nous voici, notre voyage de 
Dresde était interrompue par une rechute de goutte qui nous © 
a retenus une semaine a Plauen, petite ville de la Saxe ot ily a 
une fabrique de mousseline dont on fait commerce en Turquie. 
J’aurais voulu vous écrire de la, mais je me suis refusé ce 
plaisir parce que mon esprit était trop aigri contre ... The 
Bishop, et je ne voulais pas parler d’une conduite qui pouvait 
vous donner de la peine a cause de l’amitié dont vous m’honorez. 
Les injures qu'il me fait ne consistent qu’en des inattentions, 
et des méprises, qui ont peut étre leur aigreur dans ma misérable © 
et infortumée sensibilité. Je me détache autant que je puis 
de sa société laissant a Mr. Savignyf la pleine jouissance 
d’entendre son dieu blasphémé, et les exécrations contre sa 
patrie et ses compatriotes. I] entend tout d’un sourire d’in- 
souciance, et malgré cette complaisance francaise, il est loué 
par Monseigneur, pour sa bonne humeur. Je me retire 4 mes 
livres, compagnons toujours innocents et instructifs, ou a me 
persuader a la patience pour le plus de mois qui me restent a 
soutenir cette fardeau. Car ma chére sceur, mon parti est 
pris, le voyage d’Italie fini, je briserai les chaines que jai portées 
cing années pour satisfaire A mes devoirs, mais qui sont devenues 
insupportables par les meprises et insolences de celui a qui je 
voudrais plaire. Je lui ai déja dit que je crois que mes affaires 
demanderont mon retour ; et, coiite que coite, je le quiterai a 
Pyrmont pour me rendre aux embrassements des amis qui 
m’aiment et m’estiment. Sortant d’Angleterre a ses demandes 
sans volr méme ma chére mére et sceurs, que j’ai quittées 
quatres ans auparavont pour lui prouver ma reconnaissance, 
j ésperais m/attirer ses attentions, ses remerciments ; mais 
depuis mon arrivée a Berlin je n’ai recu que des froideurs, a 
ne dire plus. 

‘Je vous al marqué qu'il témoigne de la jalousie de votre 
correspondance avec votre frére d’adoption. Je connais trop 
sa malignité et la persévérance de cet malignité, pour ne pas 
croire qu’il fera son possible pour me perdre dans votre opinion 
et m’oter la place que je tiens dans votre esprit. 


* The date ‘'1797”’ given in the original ** Apologie ”’ 
French translation of the book to “‘ 1799. 
+ Countess Lichtenau adds a note in explanation of Savigny: ‘ Ein franzéscher Emi- 


grirter und ebenfalls Reise-Gesellschafter von Bristol.’’ 


is incorrectly changed in the 


The Earl Bishop 5389 


- Je connais trop la petitesse de son ame, dans plusieurs 
occasions, 4 presque me faire croire que la sienne au moins 
n’existe pas. Mais ne le laissez pas, me chére Henriette, 
s’emparer de votre esprit, et vous faire croire que je suis autre 
que tel que vous m’avez trouvé dans les premiers jours de mon 
séjour chez vous: tel je serai toujours, car ces jours me seront 
des plus doux de la vie, dans lesquels j’ai trouvé une sceur sl 
amiable. J’ai honte d’étre si egoiste dans cette lettre. 

“Cest pour la derniére fois que je vous parlerai de mes 
souffrances a cet égard. C’est un sujet qui me fait beaucoup 
de peine, d’autant plus que je sais que je vous donnerai aussi 
du chagrin. C’est une délicatesse aussi, ma chére, que je paye 
a vous et a tous ceux que j’aime a ne jamais parler dérespec- 
tueusement de ceux qui vous sont chers, J’ai regu votre cher 
billet, et nous avons bu a la santé de tous ceux qui se sont 
intéressés 4 vous servir. Demain, nous partons pour Naples— 
les Alpes sont dans la plus grande beauté, Adieu Henri.” 

While Naples may have been the ultimate aim of the 
travellers, as Lovell says it was, many circumstances combined 
to prevent them from ever reaching it. From Munich, however, 
they moved in a southerly direction and are next found at 
Venice. The Bishop wrote thence to Sir William Hamilton 
at Naples, 12th February, 1797 : 


“Be so good as to present my duty to the King (of Naples) 
and entreat him to give me leave to have casts made of the 
statues of Claudius, Agrippina, Nero, Hadrian, & his consort, 
dug up in the Lago Celano 1752, & sent to Caserta—as my 
account says—«& if you find him easy on the subject you may 
add the Egyptian statues and what else is good in his palace 
at Naples; but if you find him difficult you may plead that 
Prince Borghese gave me a written leave under his hand to 
take casts of all the statues found at Gabii, & also of all his 
statues in the Villa Borghese, & surely Lord Bristol will not 
find the Q. of Naples less friendly than Prince Borghese. 

“Tf you could obtain it send me the order, not a damned 
dispaccio, which makes no more dispatch than a French Dili- 
gence but a real friendly order that may instantly be executed 
by the famous Giuseppe Torrento at Rome, or any other you 
may recommend. Direct to me under cover to ‘ Petrillo, 
Aubergiste, Venezia.’ 

“T congratulate you my dear Queen on the news this 
day arrived by express that the French are driven out of Trent 
& that town reduced to ashes. My love, with your leave, to 
dearest Emma.”’ 


540 The Earl Bishop 


The Austrian advantage, however, was but temporary, 
and soon gave way to a series of disastrous defeats. The 
onward march of the victorious French Army in Italy—Mantua 
besieged and “‘ aux agonies ”’ (as he writes to Countess Lichtenau 
February 15), the Austrian General Wurmser, who had gone 
to the rescue, shut up there and on the eve of capitulating— 
the state of affairs was not auspicious for even a militant 
Bishop to proceed on a journey through Italy. He turned his 
course north-eastwards from Venice to Klagenfurt and wrote 
thence some secret intelligence to Hamilton dated February 
LSU LITO 7. 


‘“T send you, my dear Sir William, extracts from two letters 
I have lately from Venice, & which I should have communi- 
cated sooner, but that I wait for a safe opportunity: , 


Venezia, 
“frImo Rebbo. 1967, 
‘““«G? affari in Italia ed in Tirolo sono della pit grave 
perdita. lo credo, coll universale, che li Generali Austriaci 
sian traditori del loro povero sovrano. Qui ora si ciarla che 
possa venire S.A. | arciduca Giuseppe col Generale Clairfait. 


Dio voglia che questo guerriere sia incontaminabile, e ponga 
fine a queste disgrazie.’* 


“ “Venezia, 
co 6 
4 Feb., 1797.f 
Qui si dice resa Mantova per capitolazione ; ma ci sono 
delle oppozizioni che dicono che Wurmser, quando non le 


venga accordato da Buonaparte, era perduto affatto: Basta. 
Dio ponga rimedio a tanti guai.’ 


CO ¢ 


‘Here follows the situation of the two armies as traced 
to me by some prisoner officers there present. 

‘Nothing can exceed the venality of the Austrian officers 
except their /asciviousness, many of whom are in bed (with 
their w . . es) when they should have been in the field of 
Mars instead of Venus. 


‘I tremble for Naples if once the monkeys (the French) 


* “Venice, Ist Feb., 1797. The affairs in Italy and the Tyrol are of the gravest 
loss. I believe, with everyone else, that the Austrian Generals are traitors to their poor 
Sovereign. Here it is rumoured that His Highness the Archduke Joseph and General 


Clairfait may come. May God will that this warrior may be incorruptible, and put an 
end to these disasters.”’ 


{ Here they talk of the surrender of Mantua by capitulation ; but there are those of 
the opposition who say that Wurmser when he did not come to an agreement with Buona- 
parte was entirely lost: ‘“‘Enough! May God grant a remedy for so much misery.” 


The Earl Bishop 541 


are able to reach Rome, but Naples missed the moment last 
autumn when their army could, by joining Wurmser, have 
annihilated the French. 

‘What the Hungarian recruits can do no one knows, or 
ventures to guess, but vaw troops seldom make raw work. 

“Naples can yet save & recover Lombardy, but England 
must save & cover Naples. Are these orthodox politicks or 
not ? If you can send me anything, inclose it to Mr. Day, 
either by express or at Caffé Inglese. 

“ Adieu—do you advise me to hire my apartment for next 
year—yea or nay? My best & kindest love to dear Emma. 
Does the Queen ever name me to you or to dear Emma—yea 
or nay ?”’ 


VOL. II. 4 


CHAPTER LVI 


A1/97 


HE Bishop now began a project, singularly adventurous 
for his times—namely, to explore Egypt. It was in- 
spired by the accounts of his travelling companion, M. de 
Savary, who had passed eight years there and was ready to act 
as guide while a certain Count de Cassis who had made a large 
fortune in Cairo, and whom the Bishop was now about to 
visit at his home in Austria, was to furnish introductions and 
renseignements useful for the Egyptian journeys. It was 
not intended that the expedition should start for some months ; 
such preparation for it would be necessary, and in the mean- 
time it was expected a general Peace would be declared which 
would facilitate matters for the travellers. The Bishop pro- 
posed to collect a large party to accompany him—it was to 
include artists, authors, and men of science, and—he fondly 
imagined—his ‘‘ divine Comtesse.”’ Strangely enough he sug- 
~ ale that she should travel as far as Naples with the invalid 
King of Prussia, that she should leave him to winter there 
for the benefit of his health, and herself proceed thence with 
the goodly company of explorers to Egypt for a trip of some 
months up the Nile. 

The first letter in which the Bishop unfolds his plan is 
addressed to the celebrated archeologist, Hirt, who was now 
residing in Countess Lichtenau’s household at Potsdam. She, 
it will be remembered, had made the acquaintance of Hirt 
the year before in Rome, being introduced to him by Prince 
Augustus of England. He had henceforth become one of 
her most favoured protégés, accompanying her on her home- 
ward journey. Through her patronage he was nominated 
Academician at Berlin and was appointed tutor to Prince 
William, a younger son of the King.* 


_* Vehse (‘‘ Court of Prussia,’’ page 332) describes Hirt as having been “‘ a run-away 
friar from Swabia, thirty years of age, of vigorous frame, and altogether good-looking.” 


542 


The Earl Bishop 543 


The Bishop, hoping to enlist Hirt’s influence with the 
Countess in favour of his project, writes—(“ Apologie,”’ by 
Countess Lichtenau, Vol. II., 23): 


‘A Trieste, 
viGerL ar aroma 


‘Cher Hirt, J’ose vous proposer, et 4 ma chére Comtesse 
par votre Canal, un voyage (bien entendu aprés la paix) des 
plus intéressants, des plus amusants, et des plus saines, dans 
un pays ou les débris de l’ancienne Rome nous paraitront des 
nains 4 cote d’un géant. C’est de l’Egypte dont il s’agit ; 
et quand le roi fera son voyage en Italie, je propose a ma divine 
Comtesse de m’accompagner en Egypte. Nous aurons deux 
sponart avec des rames et des voiles. La Denis et M. le Pro- 
fesseur Hirt seront dans le bateau de la chére Comtesse. M. 
Savary l’auteur des charmantes Lettres sur L’Egypte (que, 
par parenthése, je vous supplie de me procurer tout de 
Suit) sera dans le mien. M. Savary y a passé huit ans tout 
entiers, parle arabe comme un Arabe, et nous tracera notre 
route. 

“Ici ce trouvent plusieurs Italiens, qui ne parlent que du 
beau temps, du climat salubre d’Egypte. Mon tailleur, mon 
valet de place, et un certain Conte de Cassis un millionnaire 
y ont été pendant plusieurs années, et jamais un instant de 
maladie. D’Alexandrie au Grand-Caire la route com- 
mune en bateau est de quatre jours. C’est précisément ce 
que M. de Savary y a mis. De la a Thébes quel agréable 
voyage ; et dans quel pays voir les plus beaux monuments 
de lart, les plus superbes effets de la nature a coté de nous ? 
Toujours par eau, toujours bien nourris, tout en abondance, et 
le vin de chypre la plus part pour un paolo la bouteille. 

“Parmi les lettres sur Egypte par M. de Savary, celles que 
je recommande le plus a ma chére Comtesse sont les 12, I3, 14, 
itis 20, 22, et 24. Apres’ celles-lai les lettres 9, ro, 11, du 
second tour et presque tout le troisiéme volume. Si vous 
pouviez me procurer le Voyage de M. Norden, danois, ou en 
frang¢ais ou en allemand, j’en serais enchanté d’autant plus, 
que ces deux éditions sont accompagnées de planches aussi 
fidéles que superbes. 

“Quant a moi je ménerai trés strement deux ou trois 
peintres tant pour le coutume que pour les monuments et les 
belles vues, afin que rien ne manque aux agréments de notre 
voyage. 

“Tl s’agirait seulement de partir de Naples au milieu de 

VOL. Il. 14* 


544 The Earl Bishop 


Septembre, . . . la Sicile, Malte, une partie de la Gréce, les 
les de Rhodes, Créte, Chypre, pour arriver en Egypte a la 
fin d’Octobre. Alors dans quatre jours nous arrivons au 
Grand-Caire et avant le vent du nord, qui souffle sans in- 
terruption quelconque, nous arrivons aux magnifiques ruines 
de Thébes aux cent portes, en vingt-un jours au plus. Je 
propose de réserver les pyramides etc., jusqu’a votre retours 
afin d’éviter les grandes chaleurs. Cher Hirt, ne voila-t-il pas un 
voyage digne de vos grandes connaissances et de votre tra- 
vail infatigable ? quels superbes dessins ne feront pas mes 
peintres! Quel magnifique ouvrage pour présenter au public 
que notre voyage associé! moi, j’en suis déja extasié d’autant 
plus, que le tout se pourra faire dans une seule année commodé- 
ment, et sans le moindre danger. Cher Hirt, adieu. Votre 
amiet votre admirateur __ Bristol. ; 

“Uncertain Comte Cassis qui a été douze ans grand douanier 
au Grand-Caire, réside actuellement a une petite ville qui 
s’appelle Marburg, sept postes et demie au nord de Laibach, 
J’y vais muni de bonnes lettres de la part du gouverneur de 
Trieste et de L’Archévéque de Laibach, uniquement pour le 
voir, et attraper des renseignements et des lettres de recom- 
mandation pour le Grand-Caire, oi on m’assure qu’il conserve 
un crédit et influence extraordinaire ; ne voila-t-il pas, cher 
Hirt, un noble enthousiasme et digne de précéder notre délicieux 
voyage en Egypte? Rhodes! Créte! Chypre! Quels 
superbes portiques au grand temple de L’Egypte! Vive la 
paix qui doit nous y porter.” 


To his “‘chére et adorable Comtesse’’ the Bishop writes 
a few days later, from ‘‘ Marburg* Sur le Drave, quatre postes 
de Gratz, ce 20 Mars, 1797,’ + that he has at last found the 
Count de Cassis, “‘cet homme si intéressant pour légypto- 
manie dont je suis dévoré et dont je ne démords pas, et qui, 
loin de me guérir de mon affection, me la fait prendre pour 
Médecine et non pour maladie.”’ 


Egypt was depicted as a paradise of enchantment, where 
perfect health was to be enjoyed, and from which all were sure 
to return with renewed youth. Obelisks, columns, sphinxes 
were to be obtained for only the cost of their transport, and 
these the Bishop destined to adorn his houses and parks at 
home. It would be tedious to quote in full the long letter 


* Marburg, in south-western Austria. 


¢ ‘‘ Apologie,’”’ Vol. IT., 24. 


The Earl Bishop 5A5 


in which he enlarges on this prospect which was never realized 
and of which the Countess herself remarks that it was a mad 
idea to suppose that the King could ever consent to her going 
to Egypt. 

Nor was Eastern travel likely to appeal to the lady herself, 
since, according to the Bishop, it was necessary for all ladies 
to be veiled. ‘‘ Quant aux femmes,” he remarks airily, ‘il 
faut que vous passiez la mienne, et que, pour n’étre pas violée, 
vous soyez voilée, et alors votre personne est plus sacrée 
que la mienne.”’ 

But for no inducement was the Countess likely to be willing 
at such a moment by embarking on foreign travel to interrupt 
the triumphs of her newly exalted position, which, dependent 
on the precarious life of a diseased monarch, she must have 
foreseen was of uncertain tenure and could not be expected 
to last long. Meanwhile, at this time and during the ensuing 
months, the social recognition by the exclusive German 
nobility was an unprecedented honour for this lowly-born 
adventuress, whose elevation they nevertheless strongly 
resented ; even all the members of the Royal Family, who 
were most hostile to her, graced her lavish entertainments ; 
her dangerous elevation, for which Dampmartin blames the 
Bishop, being in fact the precursor of the proportionate fall 
which she was soon afterwards to experience. 

It was in the spring of 1797 that her richly-dowered 
daughter, the Countess de la Marche, whom the Bishop had 
designed for a daughter-in-law, was married to a member of 
one of the principal houses in Germany, Count Frederick 
von Stolberg. The marriage turned out badly and was 
annulled two years later. — 

While the Bishop had to give up all idea of the Countess 
being one of his prospective party of explorers, he nevertheless 
continued to cherish his project for the next winter, although 
we hear no more about it for the present. In the meantime 
he wended his way back from Austria to his accustomed haunts 
in Germany. 

The Bishop’s correspondence with Ireland in regard to his 
episcopal property next comes unexpectedly under review. 
Whatever fancy he may possibly have entertained from time 
to time of returning to his diocese, all intention of his ever doing 
so must surely now have been set aside. Indeed, the perturbed 
condition of Ireland rendered it out of the question. So grave 
was the state of affairs that the episcopal residence at Derry 
was now actually occupied by troops under the Earl of Cavan. 
On receiving news of this, the Bishop in high indignation wrote 


546 The Earl Bishop 


to his clerical agent, Mr. Gouldsburg,* protesting against the 
violation. This appears by the following letter from Lord 
Cavan, addressed to the Right Hon. Thomas Pelham, Secre- 
tary for Ireland : 
“ Londonderry, 
| May 2750 as 
fling 

‘““T have the honour to transcribe for your information 
an extract of a letter from Lord Bristol to Mr. Gouldsburg, 
his resident agent here. 

“Without entering into any parley or discussion of the 
illegal & violent manner in which his Lordship (meaning me) 
has taken possession of the mansion of a Peer of the Realm 
& a Bishop of the Diocese I require him not only to quit it but 
also to repair any damage committed, in failure of which his 
Lordship is my mark for so unexampled an outrage, & Mr. 
Galbraith has my most positive & decided orders instantly to 
take up the matter legally, & vindicate the dilapidated property 
of an Irish subject. 

“In another part of his Lordship’s letter he blames his 
agent for not resisting, as he terms it, the insult I have com- 
mitted, & says the Insurgents could not have done worse. By 
this latter observation his Lordship seems aware that Insur- 
gents are in the country ; surely therefore, his quarrelling about 
his house at such a time as the present comes with a very bad 
grace from him. It has no effect on me. The troops are still 
in it, & more will shortly be, as soon as bedsteads can be made, 
unless I have official orders to the contrary. I take it for 
granted that you will support my proceedings on this subject. . . 

“ CAVAN B. G. 

“To the Rt. Hon. Thos. Pelham.”’ 


While it is said that King George, remembering how embar- 
rassing to Government had been the contumacious Bishop’s 
behaviour in Ireland five and twenty years before, secretly 
welcomed his prolonged absence abroad, the placemen among 
the high nobility in Ireland did not conceal their disappoint- 
ment that the Bishop, whose death they had long eagerly 
expected, still continued to occupy the wealthy see they coveted 
for their clerical younger sons or brothers, and demanded loudly 
that the Bishop of Derry should resign. Their complaint of 
his non-residence was a reasonable one, but the true motive 


* The Rev. Francis Gouldsburg (senior) had been Prebendary of Moville (Derry) since 
1781, but resigned in 1797 when his son the Rev. Francis Gouldsburg succeeded him in 
the Prebendary. Both held important episcopal leases on behalf of the Bishop. 


The Earl Bishop 547 


of each powerful claimant—the Beresfords, the Loftuses and 
the rest—was wholly personal or political, and not one of these 
magnates had any deep concern for the spiritual welfare of 
the diocese. None knew this better than the Bishop, who 
was well informed of everything that went on behind the scenes 
in Ireland ; and it was doubtless a source of keen satisfaction 
to him to feel that he was still blocking the wire-pullers’ way. 
It was in this spirit that when three of his episcopal brethren 
addressed a remonstrance to him on his absence, he showed his 
contempt by sending to the Primate three peas in a bladder, 
accompanied by the following doggerel lines of tongue-tripping 
alliteration then popular as a game : 


‘‘ Three large blue-bottles sat upon three blown bladders, 
Blow bottle flies, blow—burst, blown bladders, burst. 
—BRISTOL & DERRY.” 


In July of this year (1797) the Bishop went once more to 
Pyrmont, where he joined the Royal party, the King of Prussia, 
who had been seriously ill at Berlin, having arrived, with Coun- 
tess Lichtenau, on a second and final visit to Pyrmont for the 
benefit of his health. The monarch was accompanied by many 
members of the Royal Family of Prussia, and being looked upon, 
says Dampmartin, as ‘“‘ the arbiter of peace and war’’ at this 
time, “‘more than twenty princes or sovereigns with their 
suites assembled to meet him” at Pyrmont, which presented 
a scene of great brilliance. The Countess occupied the chateau 
of the Prince of Waldeck, the Duc de Broglie having given it 
up to her, while “‘ her intimate and daily society was composed 
of Lord Bristol, Mr. and Madame Denis, the Abbé of Baliviére, 
and of her own elder sister who had come with her husband 
the worthy and brave Captain Schomberg. This royal séjour,”’ 
adds the same author, “resembled in fact the journeys of 
Louis XIV.’’* 

The Bishop wrote to Sir William Hamilton (“ Morrison 
Papers,’ Vol. II.) : 

‘“ Pyrmont, 
“ July 14, 1797. 

“Amidst the various reports that will naturally circulate 
relative to the K. of Prussia’s health, you will as naturally 
wish to hear from an eye witness & an old friend the real state 
pit. 


* “ At a supper given by the Burghers of Pyrmont to the King, the Countess appeared 
as Polyhymnia in a Grecian costume with a golden diadem in a mask prepared for her by 
her friend the savant Hirt. The Countess sang after supper some lines composed by 
herself and set to music for the occasion by Himmel.’’ (Vehse’s ‘‘ Court of Prussia,”’ 


page 335.) 


548 The Earl Bishop 


‘““He arrived here 14 days ago shattered to the foundation, 
wasted to a skeleton ; & his long body & powerful frame, bent 
almost double, looked like the bow of Ulysses. 

‘““In a few days he grew erect, yet stiff everywhere but where 
he should be ; his appetite returned, his sleep restored, seems to 
announce good stamina & a full resurrection ; his physician, 
however, was not deluded by what misguided common by- 
standers, & declared both to me & to others that the tem- 
porary dispersion of clouds did not insure fine & lasting weather. 

“In fact, some days after, a silly excess at board, for at 
bed he could not trespass if he would, threw him back again, 
& he is now fruitlessly working up his lee-way. 

‘““T hope to bring a beautiful cabinet to beautiful Emma, 
almost as fair as her skin, & as elegant as her form, & purpose 
to leave Pyrmont on the first of September in order to reach 
Italy in its delicious Autumn; but indeed all, all is autumn 
with her (Italy)—her leaf is in the sear, & I doubt her returning 
spring is very distant, for she was rotten at the very core. 

“The Pope will be a great windfall, & like an earthquake 
shatter all about it. 

“No one here hopes anything from the farcical congress at 
Lille, & my letters from England are of the same mind. Adieu, 
old school fellow, let you & I be young still, for with all these 
games & gambles we may once more go to school, & not be the 
wiser ; at least you & dearest Emma will learn nothing new 
in the cordial assurance of my friendship & esteem. 

“P.S.—The Physicians talk of sending the K. of Prussia 
to Naples, if he has strength enough to reach it ; your house 
would suit him well, & he might hire that & the Vase together, 
for he is antiquity mad, & bit by the same dog as you and I.’’* 

The King, however, on his return to Potsdam grew rapidly 
worse and died on November 16, 1797. At his death it was 
the general saying, “it is well for him, and it is well for us, that 
he is no more.’’+ Amiable, weak, shifty, superstitious, sensual, 
Frederick William II. left the kingdom of Prussia in a state of 
rottenness and prepared the way for her humiliation in the 
succeeding reign. 


* In a letter to Countess Lichtenau, Sir William Hamilton solicits her interest with the 
King of Prussia to induce his Majesty to buy his collection of Vases, larger and more 
beautiful, he says, than that which the English Parliament purchased from him for the 
British Museum for £7,000, and which Wedgwood took as a model for many of his works. 


+ Massembach, quoted by Vehse. 


CHAPTER LVII 


1797-1798 


| M R. LOVELL had left the Bishop’s service in the summer 
of 1797, after accompanying him to Pyrmont. There 

he had renewed his friendship with his “‘ adopted sister,” as 
appears from a letter he addressed to Countess Lichtenau 
on his arrival in London (15 Aoat, 1797), in which he mentions 
sending her “‘ the globes, the sphere, the mathematical instru- 
ments and the books for the use of her son—Value 33 pounds 
sterling.” While delighted to return to his family he “ em- 
braces with all his heart’ the Countess’s Sister La Chapins 
—Mademoiselle Chapins was, in fact, the Countess’s devoted 
dame de Compagnie—and remains “sincerely for ever your 

very affectionate friend HENRI LOVELL.”’ 

On the exit of Lovell* there enter into the Bishop's sur- 
roundings the Reverend Mr. Burroughs, Archdeacon of Derry— 

“Dearest Newburg’’—and his wife, to whom the Bishop had 
shown so much favour a few years before. 

It would seem that the Bishop had long urged them to come 
out to him abroad; and at great inconvenience to themselves 
—so they said later—they yielded to his eager solicitations and 
left Ireland to stay with him at Pyrmont, an inducement to do 
so being that they were to travel afterwards to Italy in the 
Bishop’s carriage—he himself going on horseback—and thus 
their journeys were not to cost them a sixpence. How dismally 
these expectations were disappointed transpires in the sequel. 
The episode opens with a note from the Bishop to the Arch- 
deacon, dated ‘‘ Pyrmont, Sept. 3, 1797. 1 expect you either 
at Pyrm or Cassel with the greatest impatience & am 
convinced nothing can repair your poor shattered nerves so 
soon as these iron-fraught waters. Adieu, yrs. B.” (Letter 


* Lovell, who had been collated Prebendary of Aghadouie in the Diocese of Derry in 
August, 1796, while he was abroad, returned to Ireland; he became Archdeacon of Derry 
in 1798, on the death of Newburgh Burroughs. 


949 


550 The Earl Bishop 


purchased by the Rev. S. H. A. Hervey from a descendant of 
Mr. Burroughs.) 

Mr. and Mrs. Burroughs appear to have duly joined the 
Bishop at Pyrmont and to have accompanied him thence to 
Munich. That some unpleasantness had by that time occurred 
in the relations of the visitors with their episcopal host is evi- 
dent from the following letter addressed by the Bishop to 
Burroughs in answer to one from the latter, while the corre- 
spondents apparently were staying in the same place if not in 
the same house : 


Lie: 
‘I receive your letter this moment, & have desired 
leave of my company to send it an answer, short as it is explicit. 
“ That the whole of your suspicious apprehensions & con- 
jectures is totally unfounded, that I think Mrs. Burroughs one 
of the pleasantest politest & cheerfulest women I ever met and 
calculated to make Long evenings appear short.—that I find 
your spirits much abated, which I imputed to a manifest 
deafness which has seized you—but that your worth and 
probity would ever make you a safe companion, tho’ your 
animal spirits were not in unison to those of Mrs. Burroughs. 
(That) As to my setting out for Inspruck I see no chance 
of it for several days, considering the very weak condition of 
my young & giddy Phaeton, & that I am, as I have often proved 
myself your cordial friend BrisTot. 
~ N.B.—Mr. Lovell near seven years with me without a 
single altercation, suspicion, or jealousy ; yet he too had weak 
spirits & a dejected mind.” 
Addressed to “The Reverend, Mr. Archdeacon Burroughs.’’ 


After this there seems to have been some patching up of 
the differences between the Bishop and his companions. They 
had contemplated separating from him at Munich, but decided . 
to remain and accompany him on his travels. Matters, however, 
became more and more acute, and towards the end of the year 
reached a crisis at Trieste. Burroughs, out of health, in low 
spirits and sensitive, still felt himself agerieved and neglected 
by the Bishop. A certain Chevalier de Corn, a French émigré, 
who had joined the party, was, according to Burroughs, favoured 
too much by the Bishop, to the exclusion of himself ; while 
Mrs. Burroughs apparently insinuated that the Chevalier was a 
spy and, as such, a dangerous travelling companion. Like a 
good wife, she seems to have taken her husband’s part. Mis- 
understandings further arose as to the future plans of the Irish 


The Earl Bishop 551 


travellers, who had not sufficient money to break away from 
the Bishop and carry out by themselves the tour to Italy 
which had been planned. An amusing side of the affair is 
shown by a series of letters of cordial recommendation with 
which, despite the strained relations existing between the 
Bishop and his companions, he proposed to provide them for 
a journey to Rome and Naples without him. 
(Private letters of the Rev. S. H. A. Hervey.) 


To Angelica Kauffmann he wrote : 


‘“ Trieste, 
“5th Dec. ’97. 
“My EVER DEAREST ANGELICA, 

“You who love the Bishop of Derry will not refuse 
your friendship & hospitality to the wife of the Archdeacon, 
especially as she carries with her such strong Personal titles of 
recommendation. Mrs. Burroughs is impatient to make your 
acquaintance, both as an artist & a friend of mine. You will 
find her sufficiently versed in that art over wch you gave so 
fortunate a Preference to painting—& wch has so well testify’d 
her gratitude for the Preference. Adieu dear Angelica & re- 
member Mrs. B. as the friend of your devoted friend BRISTOL.” 

Addressed ‘‘ Miss Angelica Kauffmann, Trinita de’ Monti, 
Roma.” 


To his banker in Rome he wrote: 


* Trieste, 
Wibt Weta Os 
‘““M. Moore, 

‘As my Archdeacon Doctor Burroughs proposes to 
pass some weeks at Rome with his wife, I warmly recommend 
their interests to your protection—that you will let him have 
what money he wants on his draft for England—& above all 
that at his departure you would consign him to an excellent 
vetturino for Florence or Turin—Zembla, or God knows where 
—with proper letters on the road & you will much oblige ”’ 
(signature cut out). 

Addressed “‘ Mr. Moore, English Banker, at Rome.” 


To Sir William Hamilton he wrote: 
i IeSte. 
ath Dec O7: 
‘My DEAR SR. WM. 


“T cordially recommend to you Dr. Burroughs, Arch- 
deacon of my diocese, who in spite of every difficulty has 


552 The Earl Bishop 


had the intrepidity to penetrate from Cuxhaven here merely 
to see his Bishop. Per varios casus & tot discrimina rerum—. 
But as few Human projects are perfectly disinterested, & that 
the Pleasing Hope & Fond desire of seeing Italy, with whose 
authors he possesses so delicate an Intimacy, may have added 
one more Spur to his zest, I cannot address better than to one 
of its greatest ornaments & who certainly knows modern 
Italy as well at least as Pliny did . .. (two or three words 
hidden by seal) with far less credulity & with infinitely more 
accuracy. So much for my tribute to your literature —your 
Tribute to our long standing friendship will be paid in your 
protection to my Archdeacon. 
i DRISTOL: 
Addressed : 
“A son Excellence, 
“ Monsr. Le Chevalier Hamilton etc. etc. 
“Naples ou Caserta.”’ 


To his Banker at Naples: 
oo Ties tae 


CO ee 
““My DEAR NOBLE, 


“In case my apartment be not yet let I beg you 
would allot Mr. Lovell’s room to my Archdeacon Mr. Bur- 
roughs & his wife, during the few days they remain at 
Naples. In every other respect I count upon that unbounded 
attention which the warmth of your heart disposes, & the extent 
of your experience enables you to show to your countrymen. 

‘“ BRISTOL. 
“Would it be possible for me to hire my apartments for 
Ten years certain, and at what rent ?”’ 
Addressed, “‘ Mr. Noble, Banker at Naples.” 


As the bearers of these letters never went to Rome or Naples, 
not one of these was presented. They remained for a hundred 
years in the possession of the Burroughs family.* A letter 
of introduction addressed the same day by the Bishop to Sir 
William Hamilton was given to the Chevalier de Corn and was 
duly delivered by him on his reaching Naples—It is worded : 


“ Trieste, 
' Dec, 5thyagags 
‘“ Here is my friend & fellow traveller, the Chevalier de Corn, 
the only modest Frenchman I ever met yet ; he is full of virtue 


* These letters, with the rest of the Bux a correspondence were in the possession 
of the Rev. S. H. A. Hervey. 


The Earl Bishop 553 


-& good principles, & will do my recommendation as much honor 
as credit to your protection ; c’est tout dire Adieu, Yours &c.” 
(‘ Hamilton and Nelson Papers,” 299.) 


_ But evidently what Mr. and Mrs. Burroughs would have 
preferred to letters of social introduction or even to prospective 
favours from bankers, was a full purse of ready money. The 
following undated letter in which Burroughs pours forth his 
grievances was evidently written at Trieste on receipt of the 
bundle of introductions which the Bishop had sent over to him 
at his lodgings : 


NLY (LORD; 

“Tam infinitely obliged to your Lordship for the 
many recommendatory letters you have sent me for Italy, 
but much fear it will not be in my power to profit of the numerous 
agrémens they may procure me—I am however happy to 
have this opportunity of giving a more full & final explanation 
with respect to the purpose of our journey here which you 
still seem not to understand. Indeed it is unfortunate, alter 
five years of pressing invitation to undertake it, that we should 
also misunderstand you, as it has been repeatedly & confi- 
dentially mentioned that our so long declining to come had 
given you offence. 

‘Your Lordship does not seem sensible that our coming, 
particularly without Selina, was as high a compliment as we 
could possibly pay you considering the numerous inconveniences 
we have suffered by doing so—Unhousing ourselves, dispersing 
our children, leaving our Stock & Crop in the very middle of 
the harvest to the mercy of servants, & undertaking a journey 
which has cost us to this place £170, when from your Lordship’s 
repeated promises in your different letters in my possession, 
you assured us that on our arrival at Pyrmont it should not 
cost us sixpence,—that we were to travel in your carriage which 
you never entered, to Naples, & live in your house there, and 
in consequence of this arrangement you desired us to bring only 
£50, proposing it as a plan of economy to enable us the better 
to discharge our debts—the very reverse of all this has been 
the case, as we shall have expended on a fair calculation at the 
end of the year, making every possible retrenchment, above 
{100 more than the amount of our entire income. 

“Tf it has cost us so much coming here, it will certainly 
require a larger sum for our return, as we shall not have any 
saving in our living, & must have a guide until we arrive at Ham- 
burgh. Mrs. Burroughs’s present situation also will prevent us 


554. The Earl Bishop 


proceeding to Ireland until the end of the year, which must 
still add to our expenses. And even this event of her confine- 
ment your Lordship had provided for by saying she might 
have apartments in your house at Pyrmont. 

“All these things considered, & in the circumstances in 
which your Lordship has placed us, can we look towards Italy, 
in the way you point out; & even this meditated expedition 
you have most completely misunderstood. We never thought 
seriously of it, or conceived we could attempt it, until on 
your proposing we should make an excursion to Vienna, I 
mentioned our wish, (did our means allow it,) of going for 
six weeks, & with your approbation, to see Rome and Naples. 
We meant to quit you only for this short interval, to join 
you at Fiume, where you had proposed to settle, and accompany 
you to Pyrmont, wait for Selina’s having had the benefit of the 
season which you seemed so much to wish, & had even settled 
the manner of her coming, & at the end of this year return to 
England. This however you seem to have forgotten, or, from 
having changed your intentions towards us, wished to prevent, 
as it appears conspicuous that you are now as anxious to get 
rid of us, as you ever were for our coming. If this is occasioned 
by anything in our behaviour, particularly in mine, you are 
yourself, my lord the cause of it. If I had ever since my joining 
you, except for a moment, been treated with the attention due 
to a Gentleman, if any allowance had been made for my appre- 
hensive & nervous nature, or for any deficiency in a language, 
which your Lordship might possibly in the time have forgotten, 
I would have borne my share in your society, & conversation — 
with as much pleasure, though perhaps not with the same care 
as the Chevalier, to whom so marked a preference has been 
given, & whatever his attentions may have been, mine must 
have been more ready as springing from a gratitude & attach- 
ment he could not feel. But I was deterred from offering what 
appeared so evidently unwelcome, & give me leave my lord 
to observe that whilst you are so fastidious & so difficult, you 
not only diminish materially your own comfort, but most 
completely destroy that of those with whom you associate. 

“We are therefore, my Lord, so far ready to ccmply with 
your desires, as to quit you at this moment, & only wish we could 
have known them as fully at Munich, when so fair an occasion 
offered. We have however only to request that you will pro- 
cure for us from your Banker, a sum to answer our expences, 
for part of which I will give you an order upon Mr. Sandys,* 


* His brother-in-law, the Rev. J. Sandys, now in charge of Ickworth, whose brother, 
Francis Sandys, was the architect of the new house. 


The Earl Bishop 555 


who lends me the money payable in 4 months, & another for 
the remainder on England in six months. I can contrive no 
better arrangement, as the latter has not only advanced me 
£150 of the present year, & paid different bills at home, but 
I shall owe him the sum on the house, & Mrs. Burrowes* is to 
be repaid what I got from him at Hamburgh. 

“As your Lordship has written to me I thought it best to 
give my answer by letter also as it saves me the embarrassment 
of a personal explanation which I had proposed giving you before 
my arrival here, but postponed on account of your indisposi- 
tion. If we find on calculating our fund that it will enable 
us only to see Rome in our way home, I shall take advantage 
of the letters you have given me. 

“IT have the honour to be my Lord, your most faithful and 
obedient servant, 

““N. BURROUGHS.” 


This letter the Bishop in a rage returned to Burroughs with 
the following lines written under the above signature : 


OLR, 

“T never yet had a money transaction that did not 
end ill—& therefore shall not multiply it with you—but you 
may draw Here at 2, 3, or 4 months sight, & still receive at 
the rate of Zen per cent. profit. Beber is the best banker here 
—but you are so totally non-chalant—ZJndécis—Irresolute— 
& all but an Active & Intelligent man—I am amazed at yr 
hardihood in quitting England—if you choose to be rid of 
Philip—tho’ superfluous to me—I take him. You are the 
most unpleasant, captious, irresolute Man in all my lite. 

‘“ BRISTOL.” 


Of further letters of complaint addressed by Burroughs to 
the Bishop only one has survived, together with one from 
Mrs. Burroughs, and as neither of these bears date or address, 
it is not easy to determine their sequence. 

Mrs. Burroughs wrote while presumably still at Trieste : 


“ My Lorp, 

‘As Mr. Burroughs has not been favored with any 
reply to his last letter, & at the same time, as Baron Pittoni 
has mentioned that you accuse me also of indecision in not 
going into Italy I take the liberty of informing your Lordship 
that however anxious I might have been for such an occasion 


* Burrowes, presumably no relation to Burroughs. 


556 The Earl Bishop 


when it appeared you so much wished we should quit you, I 
did not choose to hazard it at such a moment, particularly 
attended by the Chevalier de Corn whom we were made to 
believe here was a very unsafe companion, & if you will take 
the trouble to enquire into his character, you will find what it is. 
We have also reason to suspect that he has not acted candidly 
with respect to you & us, if we do him injustice, we are ready 
to make any reparation ; but in one instance he has certainly 
deceived you, as we never gave him the least reason to suppose 
that we would go into Italy, since our coming here. | 

‘“ But as he informed us that if we remained in this place you 
would not, we beg to know whether this is the fact. We indeed 
are inclined to give some credit to this, not only from your 
declining to see us on my message, having desired we should 
be admitted, & without which we did not think it proper to 
break in upon you, we therefore, my Lord, request your direction 
if you mean to quit us, how we are to act in a strange country, 
& where we must remain until the season is favorable for 
travelling, without money; & tho’ the Chevalier informed us 
that you said you were persuaded we had money sufficient for 
our expenses we trust you cannot suppose it after Mr. Bur- 
roughs’s solemn assurances to the contrary, & all that he can 
draw for some months the enclosed will shew. I have the 
honour to be My Lord, your most faithful & obedient servant, 

‘A. S. BURROUGHS ss 


‘“ Monday. 
‘““My only motive for the liberty of addressing this letter 
is because Mr. Burroughs found he would not receive an answer.” 


An undated scrap from the Bishop suggests that it was 
written at a moment when the irresolute couple contemplated 
a journey to Rome*: ‘“ you may live in my apartment at 
Rome until April—but no longer—as I determine to be there 
myself then. If you had no money to go to Italy, why proffer 
yourselves to the Chevalier de Corn & even beg eight days 
respite of him—gquelle incongrumité /”’ 

It would seem that these misguided people, after further 
hesitation and wrangling, left the Bishop, and set forth on some 
ill-fated journey from which they returned to beg his assistance. 
Probably there were faults on both sides. But in the last act 
of the episode all element of comedy has changed to a serious 
and even tragic character. 


* During the war the route to Rome and Naples from Trieste would be by sea to Man-) 
fredonia. The Bishop recommends it in a letter to Lady Hamilton in 1798. 


The Earl Bishop 557 


“My Lorp, 

“ T dictate this letter from sick bed being myself unable 
to write, & nearly overpowered by fatigue, & writing this letter 
may possibly meet the fate of others of mine, and be committed 
to the flames before you read it, but if not I might almost ven- 
ture to say from your cruel conduct towards us that you will 
be gratified to learn that from the commencement of our journey 
until our return here we have experienced every distress which a 
strange country and rigorous climate, want of money & want of 
health, could occasion—for such was our unprovoked situation 
as I write, that we could only procure £50 attended with diffi- 
culties almost insurmountable & that by a draft upon poor 
Sandys, & on whom I had already drawn for £30, though he had 
declared on my leaving England that between him & Selina all 
they could raise for me was £35, but my necessity found this, 
for I could not prevail upon any human being to accept a draft 
on Ireland ? it grieves me to think how your Lordship could 
with such hardness of heart & such want of common justice & 
pity quit in so wretched & destitute a situation, when your rela- 
tions Mr. Dalbioc & Miss Davers arrived like us in a strange 
country & without a friend, but still more without money... 
they were received into our house in Ireland already filled 
with my own family & given much more than we could afford, 
but much less than we desired—this was my wife's first essay 
on coming to her own house & how she requited herself by her 
kindness under sympathy & softening consolation you already 
know—with your great fortune, & with the protection we had a 
right to expect from you, how differently have we been treated 
in nearly similar circumstances. I am now confined to a sick 
bed, from which my Physician does not know when I shall be 
released. Mrs. B’s critical situation, & the uncertainty whether 
she can arrive in England before her confinement, put all 
these distressing circumstances together & I think at last your 
Lordship will be stung with compassion & pity, I enclose you 
Mr. Burrowes’s answer from Munich, as early as I could write 
it to prove what was my intention had it not been defeated by 
your Lordship. I shall only add that in addition to all this 
I have understood from different persons that you have used 
every occasion to speak of me with abuse & contempt, in return 
to which I have never by word or letter uttered an offensive or 
disrespectful expression.”’ 


No record exists to throw light on the final issue of these 
recriminations. But let us hope that the Bishop, renowned 
as he was for generosity, rescued this distressful couple from 

VOL. Il. 15 


558 The Earl Bishop 


their plight, and renewed the beneficence which he had so con- 
spicuously shown them in their early misfortunes. Be that 
as it may, the episode ended tragically ; for the Archdeacon 
became seriously ill and, whether or not he lived to return home, 
~ he died within a year.* His wife did not survive him long. 

The Bishop hereafter took an affectionate interest in their 
daughter. We shall find later that he addressed her as “‘ Sweet 
Selina ’’’—an innocent familiarity, since he could not have 
seen her since she was a baby. He left her £100 in his will. 


* He died in 1798. In September of that year Trefusis Lovell was collated to the 
Archdeaconry of Derry in succession to him. 


CHAPTER: LVITI 


1797-1798 


EWS of Countess Lichtenau’s arrest on the death of 

her royal protector, and the accession of his son, Frederick 

William III., reached the Bishop at Trieste where he was 
lying ill. 

Among the misdemeanours of which she was accused or 
suspected was that of intriguing with Lord Bristol in the 
interests of England. So declared later her friend De Filistri 
in a letter to the Countess, in which he says that he knows 
this for a fact, having heard it direct from the mouth of the 
Widow Queen of Prussia herself, at a time when he, Filistri, 
vainly implored the Queen’s protection for the Countess, then 
a prisoner at Potsdam where she had been detained immediately 
after the King’s death.* It is true that the Countess was 
eventually exculpated in this particular, but the report was at 
first generally believed. On the other hand an accusation 
equally unsupported by evidence was brought against her 
that she had received bribes from France. Reports reaching 
the Bishop that this accusation was true caused a complete 
revulsion of his feelings, and turned, as the Countess herself 
says, his former friendship into hatred. 


* “ Scarcely had King Frederick William III. ascended the Throne when a detachment 
of the King’s guards arrived before her lodgings in the New Garden at Potsdam ; and she 
was told to consider herself a prisoner. Her mother and her son, together with his tutor 
(Colonel Dampmartin), were also put under arrest. In March, 1798, she was compelled 
to appear at Berlin to answer the charges against her. The enquiry proved nothing 
criminal. Nevertheless all her possessions were confiscated. She was now exiled to the 
Fortress of Glogau, without, however, being confined to her room or her house, and she 
was allowed an annual pension of four thousand dollars. In 1800 she was liberated ; 
and in 1802 she married with the royal consent the poet Franz Von Holbein, who left her 
in 1806. In 1809 she received through Napoléon, to whom she had applied, an indemnity 
for all her confiscated houses, estates, and monies. In 1811 she went to Paris to offer her 
thanks to the Emperor, and was presented to him at St. Cloud. She lived for some time 
in Paris, and afterwards in Berlin, where in the stirring times of 1813 she made herself 
conspicuous by her patriotism, and where she died in 1820 at the age of sixty-eight.” 
(Vehse’s “‘ Court of Prussia.”’ Paulig, Frederick Wilhelm IT.) 


VOL. Il. 559 int 


560 The Earl Bishop 


The Bishop at this time in the following letter to Sir William 
Hamilton makes a disparaging reference to “Madame de 
Ritz,” and no longer calls her by the title he had been instru- 
mental in procuring for her. He writes: 


“ Trieste, 
\ Det agp gage 

“TI may certainly die out of Italy this winter, but I cer- 
tainly cannot dive out of it, for the gout has already seized 
me in this pestiferous climate, & laid me 3 weeks on my back, 
and that you know is not the natural attitude for a man. 

“Smooth therefore, as you term it, my dear friend, my road 
to my delicious apartment, tho’ how it came to be rugged, 
I know not, nor can even guess. 

“The Austrians take possession of Venice on the 26th. 
General Mack* is already there, & promises me a guard of 
20 men through the Cisalpine. Poor Madame de Ritz is in 
Spandau after playing the fool, & some say the knave, these 
last eleven months ; she was arrested the day after the death 
of that old Pore d’Epicure (the King of Prussia). 

“Here many private letters mention that Buonaparte was 
arrested at Strasburg on the 13th, Barras & he are respectively 
afraid of each other. He has got his Mistress, & now wishes 
to get his place. Adieu, my best & constant love to dearest 
Emma, yours,” &c. 


In the next, as in many another letter to Hamilton, the 
Bishop again appears in his character of war correspondent : 


‘* Trieste, | 
 Decn20, t7a9- 


“Though I wrote you so lately, yet, having for certain 
heard that an English Fleet is in the Mediterranean, I can- 
not resist informing you by express. 

“That the French men-of-war, aymés en flite, & chuck- 
full of all the plunders from Venice, incapable of resistance, 
like the fat alderman gorged with turtle & venison, are now 
and for weeks past have been in the port of Corfu under the 
rotten cannon of a rotten fort. That 25 merchant ships, loaded 
in the same manner, hover near the port of Zara in Dalmatia, 
where the inhabitants will not suffer them to enter.—‘ che 
Boccone /’ Sir William. 

* Karl Baron Mack of Leiberich (1752-1828), an Austrian, was named Generalissimo 


of the Neapolitan troops in 1798, but being defeated by Macdonald and Championet was 
sent prisoner to Paris, whence he made his escape. . 


‘og asnd aav{ of) 


IQQI “4uUOLyT YNOS ‘aspo’T YOM] 


ohn arses eh dices imateaemmemneenttene 


i aft a ae 
sala Seen HE RO 


“sasha 


rte 








The Earl Bishop 561 


“The Russian Consul, a nobleman of Corfu, assures me that 
a thousand stand of arms dispersed among his countrymen 
will enable them to massacre every Frenchman in the island ; 
for the whole garrison of the miserable fort consists of only 
1700 raggamuffins, sans culoties, sans bas, sans souliers; Ii 
you could forward this intelligence to our fleet be it where 
it will, you yourself, better than I, can judge of the important 
service you will do both to the publick & to individuals. 

“Why, man, ten Spanish galleons are scarce richer—and 
then the men-of-war for Government, ‘ Che Boccone, tt dico/’” 


Meanwhile the year 1798, which in its course was to bring 
our Bishop one rebuff of fortune upon another in his advancing 
age, opened for him with an adverse turn. We left him at 
Trieste, and he writes thence to Sir William Hamilton, January 
6G, 1708 : 


“A very unpleasant difficulty has happened to me with my 
bankers Messrs. Panton of Leghorn. 

“Upon the approach of the French to Leghorn, I wrote 
positive orders to Panton to remove my effects to Corsica. 

‘They answered me Corsica was in more danger than Leg- 
horn, & retained my goods in Leghorn. 

“As the French approached, they without consulting me 
hired a vessel for Naples, at the incredible price of {£1800 
sterling, and in it transferred my goods worth £680 at first 
cost. 

“The goods are at Naples with either Cutler & Heigelin, 
or the Dogana, I know not which. 

“Mr. Noble knows the whole transaction. Can either 
you or Sir John Acton serve me in this affair? If you can 
I am sure you will. lo non m «intendo.”’ 


What these goods were which he valued at so moderate a 
figure is explained in a second letter ; among them, as appears, 
were masterpieces of the earliest Italian painters. But 
in the Bishop’s day the “old pedantry of painting” (as he 
styles Giotto and Cimabué!) were little in vogue, and could 
be picked up for a trifle. He next writes: 


‘““ Venice, 
«© Jans 26).0708) 
“Tt is my pride & my glory that in the course of more than 
32 years that I have known you Minister at Naples, & ex- 
perienced both your protection as Minister, & your friend- 


562 The Earl Bishop 


ship as schoolfellow, I never yet have troubled you once upon 
business—that pungent thorn in diplomatick sides ; but now, 
my oracle, I must invoke either your aid, or your counsel, or 
both. Here then is my case @ Ja lettre. 

“Upon the menace of a French invasion into Tuscany I[ 
wrote positive, precise, orders to Messrs. Panton to send all 
my cases over into Corsica, where I knew my friend F. North 
would take care of them. Their answer was the goods were 
more in danger in Bastia than Leghorn, & they should not 
send them. 

‘““The French did advance & Messrs. Panton, instead of 
sending my cases to Bastia according to orders, hired a vessel 
(it is said by Collusion) at the enormous freight of £1800 sterling 
to carry these goods to Naples, at an immense risk from 
the enemies’ privateer, to be deported at Messrs. Cutler & 
Heigelin with orders not to deliver them until they were certified 
that the freight was paid. 

“ Now this freight of £1800 from Leghorn to Naples is for 
pictures, busts, some Carrara statues, and other marbles to 
the amount of £750 more or less. The pictures are chiefly 
Cimabué, Giotto, Guido da Siena, Marco di Siena, & all that 
old pedantry of painting which seemed to show the progress 
of art at its resurrection, & so, had they been even left to the 
mercy of the French, might have been redeemed for a érzfle, 
being like many other trifles, of no use to any but the owner. 

“Nay, had not Messrs. Panton not felt sinister intentions 
they would have lodged the cases in Italian Warehouses or sent 
them by the Arno to my banker Fenz: at Florence. 

‘Your advice therefore, how to proceed in the recovery 
of these goods and information whether Sir J. Acton upon 
proof of these facts & upon my paying the usual reasonable 
freight from Leghorn to Naples, can relieve me from this 
fraud & rapine, is what I submit to your experience, your 
knowledge and your friendship—certain, very certain, that 
what can be done will be done by you. 

“All here is in the greatest ecstasy of joy at the joyeuse 
entrée of the Austrians, & you may bid Emma tell the dear 
Queen that from Udine here we saw nothing but festoons, 
triumphal arches, emblems of Austria, and all that can indicate 
joy, content & happiness. 

“The Corfu fleet is im statu quo; almost all déabré and 
chuck full with booty; for God’s sake, for Patriotism’s 
sake, let not Earl St. Vincent lose this glorious opportunity. 
What thanks Mr. Pitt must give you & what approbation 
must you give yourself. My friends here assure me there is 


The Earl Bishop 568 


_ upwards of two millions sterling booty in gold, silver, copper, 
pictures &c. &c. Ever yours most cordially, with my best 
love to dearest Emma. I shall stay at Rome two or three days, 
& then for my garret in Caserta.” 


But the Bishop’s hope of revisiting his old friends at Caserta 
was again to be frustrated. The same fate which was chang- 
ing the whole course of European affairs was to prevent the 
realization of more than one of the Bishop’s dreams. 

Strange as it may seem, this veteran enthusiast, in spite of 
wars and rumours of wars on every side of him, still cherished 
his idea of exploring Egypt, and did so notwithstanding that 
the Lichtenau and her satellites, originally associated with it, 
were no longer so. But perhaps the strangest feature of the 
project is that men of talent—one even of genius—should be 
willing to join with him at such a moment ; and, little antici- 
pating that another and a mightier Egyptian project would 
frustrate theirs at the eleventh hour, they were, during the 
winter of 1797-1798, actually engaged in making scientific 
preparations for the Bishop’s expedition which was now 
planned to begin in the following summer. It is from the 
letters of Alexander von Humboldt—at this time a young 
man of brilliant promise—that we learn that the Bishop had 
written to him from Fiume in November, 1797, inviting him 
—tout dun coup—to join the prospective expedition, and 
giving him eight days in which to make up his mind. Hum- 
boldt did not hesitate to accept the invitation. He would 
be, he says, happy to meet Lord Bristol at Naples in the 
following July or August, accompanying him to Rosetta, 
proceed up the Nile as far as Thebes or Assouan in a yacht 
“with an armoured crew, with artists, scholars etc., and with 
a kitchen and well provided cellar.” 

Humboldt was to be “free of expense throughout.” In 
the spring of 1799 the party was to return by way of Con- 
stantinople and Vienna. Such was the plan ; and in connection 
with it Humboldt wrote to a friend. ‘‘ You might possibly 
think the society of the noble lord objectionable. He is 
fantaste* to the highest degree. I have only once seen 
him, and that was during one of the expeditions he used to make 
on horseback between Pyrmont and Naples. I was aware 
that it was not easy to live at peace with him. But I can 
leave him at any time if he should oppose metoo much. Besides, 

* “ Fantaste’’ for ‘‘ fantasque.’’ Humboldt calls the Bishop elsewhere “‘ halb toll, halb 
Genius.”’ ‘‘ Lovenberg’s Biographie,” edited by Bruhns (1872), Vol. I., pages 252-256, 

“Le Globe: Journal Géographique de la Société de Genéve en 1868.” Tome VII., 
pages 137-204. 


564 The Earl Bishop 


he is a man of genius, and it would have been a pity to have i 
lost so excellent an opportunity. I might do something for ~ 
meteorology. However, I must beg of you not to mention ~ 


the expedition to anybody.’ In anticipation of the tour, 


Humboldt devoted himself during the winter to such studies 


as would best prepare him for it, and in the spring he was to 
proceed to Paris that he might provide himself with good 
instruments for his investigations. 

During the whole time he was making his preparations, as 
Humboldt said afterwards, no one had spoken a word to him 
of Buonaparte’s coming expedition to Egypt, and when 
eventually the news of it suddenly reached him he was the 
more astonished and dismayed—“ Shattering to the winds ”’ 
as it did, to quote his own words, his “ own most cherished 
plans with the Bishop’s.” 

The Bishop thus frustrated in the object on which he had 
set his heart, and thwarted in all directions by the French 
Armies, may well have exclaimed with the Psalmist: ‘“ Mine 
adversaries close me in on every side.” 

Nor were his former allies, the Prussians, likely to extend 
him friendship or hospitality. In the new order of things 
under Frederick William III. his intrigues with the now dis- 
graced Countess were too well remembered for him to receive 
any welcome there. The following letter from the Bishop 
at Venice addressed to Dampmartin and sent by courier to 
Augsburg, in which he offers him assistance in his fallen fortunes, 
and asks for news of Countess Lichtenau, seems to suggest 
some personal uneasiness on the Bishop’s part as to the fate of 
her correspondence to which he had himself contributed so 
largely. The ex-tutor had been arrested with the Countess 
at Potsdam, but was soon set at liberty, and then went to 
reside at Augsburg. He was, in fact, little likely to be tempted 
to avail himself of assistance from the ‘ haughty’’ English 
nobleman who, in the Frenchman’s eyes, was the chief source 
of his patroness’s present misfortunes. 


12 Janvier i 7oees 
‘“MONSIEUR, Je suis désolé des bruits qu’on fait courir 
tant en public que dans le particulier touchant Madame la 
Comtesse. Elle m/’intéresse d’autant plus, que lamitié que 
javais, depuis vingts ans et plus, vouée a M. votre pére, me 
donnait un intérét trés-vif dans le sort de son fils, qu’on ne 
saurait connaitre sans l’estimer; et je me flatte que, si la mal- 


* “ Apologie,’’ Vol. II. 


Pe ee es ae te il = 





The Earl Bishop 565 


heureuse destinée de Madame la Comtesse vous a presque 
écrasé, j’ai trouvé l'occasion de vous relever, et méme de vous 
placer avec autant de solidité que de permanence. 

‘““Mais, par le retour méme de courier, j’ose vous prier, 
par des raisons trés particuliéres, de me détailler toute l’his- 
toire de cette malheureuse femme depuis la mort du roi; ce 
qu’on peut lui prover, et surtout ce qui peut paraitre par sa 
correspondance dont on s’est emparé, et vous obligerez infini- 
ment votre ami.--LE CoMTE DE BRISTOL, EvfQUE DE DERRY.” 


This is the last of the Bishop’s letters that contains any 
reference to the lady with whom he had been so closely asso- 
ciated during two years. A note appended to it on its publica- 
tion remarks that a fate similar to her own was ere long to 
befall the Bishop, and states that he believed the false reports 
as to her supposed treason which had been maliciously spread 
from Berlin. 

No instance is more noteworthy than the following of the 
ability, and the ease, with which, in the midst of his various 
Continental distractions, the Bishop could rapidly turn. his 
mind from one channel of thought to another. 

On the very same day on which he wrote the above to 
Dampmartin, he wrote a letter on Irish affairs, at that critical 
time in the history of Ireland when she was nearing the momen- 
tous revolution of 1798. It shows not only how deeply he had 
the welfare of Ireland at heart, but that he was as cognizant 
as any man of her urgent needs and of the sources of her 
grievances. And whatever may be thought of the remedies 
which he prescribed, they were at all events the same which 
he had urged fifteen, or even twenty years earlier, with a single- 
ness and persistency of purpose which must go far to exculpate 
him from the charges of superficiality, changeableness, and 
love of novelty often brought against him. The letter* is 
addressed to the same Thomas Pelhamft who was formerly 
associated with the proposals to arrest the Bishop in Lord 
Northington’s time, and who was now again (for a brief period) 
Secretary for Ireland in Lord Camden’s administration. 


oN enice: 
“6th Jan. ‘98. 
SOIR, 
“You have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it, as Shake- 
speare says. You have stopt the fever not cured it, and that 


* Presented to the British Museum by the fourth Earl of Chichester. Add. MSS., 33105, 


page 327. i , 
+ Afterwards second Earl of Chichester. 


566 The Earl Bishop 


you know full well. In all my diocese, the very foyer of Rebel- 
lion, Mutiny & insurrection, the embers are still warm, nay 
hot & ready to burst out again ‘and warm the Nations with 
redoubled Rage,’ but a good Physician, like you, will not 
content himself with the blisters and bleedings that have been 
applied, you will for the sake of the patient, as well as your 
own medical reputation, endeavour to extirpate the fever 
& finally destroy the seeds of it. 

‘In my time, in the Course of thirty years, this is the 
third great Paroxysm. We have had hearts of oak, (2d) Hearts 
of Steel, & (3d) the Defenders, alias—alias—alias—All your | 
good predecessors having contented themselves with stopping 
the fever—none have searched the cause, or sought to root it 
out. 

‘“ After thirty years experience, & a more thorough acquain- 
tance with the Constitution, pulse and habits of your frantick 
Patient, than anyone of my cloth, after having gained his 
affections, enjoyed his confidence, and merited his esteem, [ 
will venture to assure you in plain terms, & without metaphor, 
he is an animal easily led, not to be driven, & that in plain 
English there are two radical fundamental causes of his Dis- 
content & of his savage Resentment. 

‘“ Tithes—and the nature, quality, and pitiful dependence 
of his Teachers on their Hearers—who if they (the teachers) 
do not preach what the others like to hear are sure to be, first, 
ill-paid, & then dismissed. I say Tithes first—I beg you to hear 
me patiently—for you do not know the nature of Tithes in Ulster 
—but here it is. 

‘““ Besides the general disadvantage it (the Tythe System) 
brings to Agriculture, by the short uncertain tenure which a 
Parson can give of the Tenth of the land’s produce & the tillers’ 
toil a disadvantage so glaring and so oppressive ’tis amazing 
that any enlightened legislature allows it to outlive the present 
year, & in truth all acts for 40 years past to enclose lands do 
exclude it,—besides the apparent injustice of a Presbyterian 
paying a teacher he does not hear—there is in Ulster a horrid 
local grievance ; the Parson either lets his Tithes to the farmer 
during incumbency, or he farms them to a tithe-farmer for 
peace and certainty’s sake, & then, Sir, see the consequence 
which for more than 30 years past has been one of the great 
and principal causes of our distractions—he lets his tithe 
during incumbency—& could he do better >—no—but unluckily 
he does it, only to undo it. The farmer relying on this lease 
sets himself to buy lime, marle & shells at a great expence— 
he has nothing to hear from his landlord, secured by a lease 


The Earl Bishop 567 


of 21 or 31 years, or from the parson (secured by an incumbency 
lease)—but here comes the rub: in 8 or Io years, the value 
of the Tithe doubles. The Parson then looks out for a Brother 
under similar circumstances with himself: they compare notes, 
values, increase &c., and soon obtain from their respective 
Bishops liberty to exchange, and the farmer remains the dupe 
of his confidence, & then— Manet alta mente repostum ’—— 
In the case of the tithe-farmer ’tis perhaps even more shocking: 
he begins his reign—as Nevo did his Quinquennium—all mild- 
ness & moderation: Is the farmer unable to pay ?—he accepts 
his bond with a moderate interest. The 2d or 3rd year the 
same ; & when the poor farmer is fairly, or foully, in the toils, 
the tithe-farmer strips off the mask, raises the price of next 
year’s tithe beyond its value, & then, by distress & sale of goods, 
& backed by the bonds of former years, he makes himself, the 
Parson, & the Established Religion all equally hated. 

‘““My remedy for all this evil is simple: I proposed it in 
the year 1774, & it was accepted by the bench of Bishops, 
assembled at the late Primate’s, but, by way of experiment, 
confined to the Diocese of Derry. But my illness & other cir- 
cumstances made me drop it. 

‘“‘ This was the remedy, grounded on the English Statutes for 
enclosing parishes, & nothing, I believe can be more simple, 
or more effective: An Act to enable every Rector & Vicar, 
with consent of the Patron of the parish & the Bishop of the 
Diocese, to exchange his tithe, or any portion of his tithe for 
land of the same value; so that the exchange will only be 
gradual in the parish. 

‘“ And the mode of exchange is equally simple, & grounded 
also upon the Daily practice when a Parson wants to build 
a parsonage, & having no glebe convenient to his Church, 
he exchanges with a proprietor who has—& the Sheriff shall 
summon 12 men to judge of the value, which being usually 
previously settled & ascertained between the two parties inter- 
changing, the Sheriff & Jury sign the deeds: And the tithes 
are consecrated (? cancelled) for ever after. 

“T need not descant to you upon the comfort of a Parson 
who has only a Glebe or a farm for his sustenance, how light 
his heart must feel, and how heavy his purse must grow— 
all this is superfluous to a man of your feelings or of your 
experience. 

“I come to the next cause, which requires deeper probing : 
Is it not a shame that in any civilised country and where there 
is an E-tablished Religion as well as Government, there should 
be teachers professedly paid by their hearers for preaching 


568 The Earl Bishop 


against both the one & the other. Neither Popish nor Presby- 
terian Parson should in my opinion be permitted by law to preach 
or pray, in doors or out of doors, but under the Great Seal of 
Ireland. The Crown should be the patron of all Dissenters, 
seceders and Schismaticks whatever & the Crown should either 
pay them, or be the cause of their being paid—and then Govern- 
ment would be certain of the people they appoint & the doctrines 
they would teach. 

“IT conceive three means of subsisting them, all in my 
opinion equally eligible : 


‘““(ist) either for the Crown to pay them directly out of 


the Cordatum money or out of such a fund as Parliament should 
appoint. 

‘“(2nd) Their salary to be raised by a rate upon each separate 
Barony—like the high-roads—or upon the County at iarge 
like bridges & hospitals. 

“ (3rd) Upon the vacancy of any living whether by a portion 
of the Glebe, or income at large of that living—nor could this, 
in my opinion (& until corrected by yours) be deemed any 
hardship on the Parson, since if every Presbyterian was in a 
moment in any parish whatever to be converted to the Es- 
tablished Church, the Parson’s flock would become so numerous 
he would be obliged to keep a Shepherd-boy, aliasa Curate. This 
would effectually tear up Rebellion by the roots; for where 
the preacher would be appointed by the proper authority, & 
then be paid for preaching loyalty instead of disaffection,— 
where the Treasure is, there would be the Heart likewise; & 
the sour, supercilious, discontented hind would no longer refuse, 
as he does now, his pitiful mite of an hali-crown to the man 
who would teach him his duty instead of the breach of it. 

“Anything so anomalous, so incongruous as a man in a 
civilized State paid for preaching Anarchy confusion, rebellion, 
&c. I do not conceive, but I do conceive that if to this poison, 
your experience, your abilities and your firmness do not oppose 
some radical antidote, the diseased body must burst, & so with 
every wish for your success, both as a man & as a Minister, 
I remain your sincere Votary 

 BRISTGD 


Meanwhile the Bishop kept up a constant correspondence 
with Henry Hervey Bruce in Ireland, who supplied him with 
information about diocesan and all local affairs—No details 
were too small for the Bishop ; he was thus enabled to direct 
from abroad the distribution of his vast ecclesiastical patronage 
through the medium of Bruce, and it is evident that the confi- 


The Earl Bishop 569 


dence which the Bishop placed in the judgment and ability of 
his young kinsman could not have been better bestowed. 
Among letters from the Bishop to Bruce which are preserved 
at Downhill the following is significant of the manner in which 
he disposed of the livings in his gift ; while the tribute to Bruce’s 
merits, contained in it, proved to be thoroughly deserved. 


~ Venice, 
ag Jan. 1793: 

““My DEAREST HARRY, 

“You have done perfectly right, as you always 
do, in not quitting your dearest Letitia whilst her spirits 
needed your presence & your own spirits could support Hers. 

“She was your first parish—Ballykelly is at best but a 
lawful concubine & very secondary to yr true legitimate and 
carnal wife for you were a Man before you became a Parson, & 
therefore conjugal duties are prior to Clerical ones. 

“Yet at Easter I hope you will both contrive to go, even 
tho’ you should return, for at so early a season the air of the 
Country will still be raw & cold. 

“My appointment of that poor Indolent Beggar Balfour 
has given universal satisfaction—if Waddy goes off as is ex- 
pected since he is already in the socket, Cumber must be offer’d 
to Balfour who will,be succeeded by Mr. Sandys, who upon 
Balfour’s declining must then be instituted to Cumber—for a 
wife & five children, you well know, never call in vain upon me. 

“Tf Mun Hamilton should at last wear out, Mr. Sampson 
as a good preacher must succeed him. I cannot place a 
properer man at Newtown. 

“Some, nay many letters say that Soden is going fast—in 
that case Bob M’Ghee with his large family & still larger debts 
must succeed him, altho’ he tvzed to use me scurvily in Mr. 
Lovell’s affair. 

“I forgot to mention Mr. Sandys’ successor at that Elegant 
Gem of Ki . . . h—it must be that worthy, upright exemplary 
Character Mr. Oliver McCausland, for I believe I am not mis- 
informed with regard to the filial sacrifices he made to the dis- 
tresses of his father—am I? or am I not ? and such singular 
duties require early rewards—the best preachers in the Diocese 
will then be fixed in the most numerous congregations, and no 
one but must confess I have conscientiously executed the Duties 
of a trustee. No one could be more suitably placed in that 
lucrative Parish & social as well as Opulent neighbourhood of 
B. Kelly (Ballykelly) than yourself. Your liberality, hospitality, 
gentleman-like address, liberal sentiments joined to private and 


570 The Earl Bishop 


collateral means of doing justice to yr station all combine to 
place you like a Hare in yr form. 

“Balfour wanted it—pouted & even flouted me because 
he did not get it. Mun Hamilton turned advocate for him, and 
became even a sturdy beggar for him. What would have been 
the consequence? He & his eleven kittens would have lived 
there on bread & cheese, the country would never have visited 
& never have received the city mouse, he wd have studied 
Hebrew roots till he was blind—his own Brats wd have 
made him Deaf to the cries of others,* & amidst the very best 
society of the whole county, he would have lived, I mean 
vegetated, in an Hermitage. The world will say I gave to 
Favor—they are as usual mistaken—lI gave to merit—to merit 
of every kind—for I declare solemnly before God—had you been 
Balfour, & Balfour you, in point of character in manners, 
disposition, you shd not have had it—«& so dear Harry with my 
tenderest constant love to Letitia adieu—-Send me all the news.”’ 

Addressed: ‘‘ The Reverend W. H. Bruce, Dawson Street, 
Dublin, Ireland.” 


* Balfour, however, was, as we have seen, rescued from poverty by a comfortable 
living ; a fact which his daughter—one of the “ eleven kittens ’’—chronicles in a book of 
verse which she published after the Bishop’s death. In a poem eulogizing the Bishop’s 
merits in gratitude for his bestowing a living on her father, who had been “ long piningin 
misfortune’s gloom,”’ she exclaims : 


“*’ Tis thine the sons of penury to seek, 
Soft comfort to the drooping heart to speak ; 
‘Tis thine to share the wealth that Heaven has lent, 
And round thy hall spread plenty and content.”’ 


(Poems by Miss Balfour, Newton Limavady, 1810). 





CHAPTER LIX 


Se Ne to the Bishop’s correspondence with Hamilton, 
we find him moved from Venice to Padua. 


“ Padua, 
Hiypiakels pmo om Neer fats%) 


(“ Hamilton and Nelson Papers,’’ letter 305.) 

~ All our accounts, public & private, announce us in pos- 
session of Corfu &c. God grant it may be true, for you see by 
my detail how important a possession it is, both in point of 
commerce & immediate revenue. Tomorrow I set out for 
Naples, not being able to endure the damps of this part of 
Italy, which lay me up in bed for above half the day, deprive me 
of my appetite, sleep & spirits ; nothing but Naples can restore 
me, but how to reach it? If you know any magical means 
pray suggest it, and inclose your letter as usual to Mr. Day. 
Oh how I long to stretch myself in my garret at Caserta, & hear 
all your excellent anecdotes & dearest Emma’s Dorick dialect, 
eat woodcock pie & quaff humble port—till when Adieu.” 


At Padua the Bishop fell ill of jaundice, and on returning 
to Venice suffered a relapse. Keen notwithstanding to collect 
secret information and retail it, he reports as follows to Wyndham, 
the English Envoy at Florence, who forwarded the letter to 
Hamilton : 


‘March 9,, 1708. 


‘I send to you the enclosed (docketed by Mr. Wyndham, 
was a letter from Sir W. Hamilton dated March 7, 1798) @ 
cachet volant, that you may judge how necessary to send it, not 
only by the speediest, but by the most secret method possible, 
if such there be. I am sorry that today all the contents are 
confirmed. 

‘The success of this canaille is equal to their arrogance. 
Poor Venice is tumbling out of the frying pan into the fire; 


971 


572 The Earl Bishop 


those beastly brutal Austrians are establishing such a despotism 
that already the populace at Padua have begun to tear down 
the Imperial flag. Quem Jupiter vult perdere dementat prius. 
And are you yourselves safe in Tuscany, dum proximus ardet 
Ucalegon ? Tam told not. I am very ill indeed with jaundice, 
e mi lusingo che c’é pericolo giacché sono piu che stuffo di tutte 
queste coglonerte. yrs.”’ &c. 


The Bishop wrote again next day to Wyndham, who for- 
warded this letter with the enclosed to Naples : 


“March 10, 1708. 


“T trouble you again my dear Sir, with the enclosed a 
cachet volant for Sir William, as I deem the contents infinitely 
interesting. 

“We are flattered here that the kingdom of Naples is arming 
in mass, 2nd, that the King’s troops to the amount of 3,500 
commanded by the Chevalier de Suze are advancing fast to 
Rome. 3rd. That the Roman dissentients have repulsed, beat, 
& repressed Masséna, even, some letters add, fled to Ancona 
for re-inforcements. Commérage—Commérage/ For God’s 
sake enquire of the Neapolitan Minister or others & write me 
what you can of it, as 1 interests me deeply ; tor they have confis- 
cated all my immense property there ; but having most nobly 
offered me to ransom it at a decent price, it remains for me to 
know whether Masséna is likely to remain there to receive the 
ransom. 

‘““At the same time be good to answer me with the same 
frankness I ask you, if, as all the inns are chuck full, you would 
give me one room in your house up two pair of stairs where I 
always slept in my son’s time. (When Lord Hervey was 
English Envoy at Florence.) If not I shall look out, and am, 
with equal regard,’’ &c. 


The following undated letter to Hamilton was evidently 
written from Venice at this time, when he was still suffering 
from jaundice : 


‘““ However vague the report may be, I think it my duty to 
communicate it to you. I am in bed these 14 days with a 
jaundice caught at Padua, where now it is efzdemic ; Giunti is 
also with the same bedfellow, 12 miles from Bologna. | 

“Three days ago a French Commissary, well dressed as 
usual, better mounted on 2 English horses of £50 each, alighted 
to dinner. 

‘““T sent my compliments to beg the news of the day. 


The Earl Bishop 578 


««Dites a milord que je n’en connais aucune, excepté que 
je vais moi a Ferrara y préparer les quartiers pour 12,000 
Francois, premiére colonne de 25,000, qui ont ordres de se 
rendre 4 Rome, y affermir la souveraineté du peuple Romain, et 
puis lui Assujettir son vassal, la république de Naples, avec 
son Haquenée et toutes les redevances qu’un vassal doit a son 
souverain.’ 

“Since that day I have heard no more of the 12,000 men, 
but it is certain that 4,000 cavalry are set out from Ferrara 
for Rome, with that avowed impudent audacious purpose ; 
and moreover, that all the innumerable bodies of the requisition 
from Lyons and the South of France speak publicly the same 
language. 

“The Cisalpine in the meantime is crumbling fast, the 
Municipality of Ferrara is dissolved, & a Military Government 
for all justice established in its stead. 

“An English family that stopped at Mantua too have 
just told me its ramparts are totally dismantled—not a gun 
left in the place, not a soldier in the town—not a zecchino in 
anybody’s pocket after rigidly shutting up the gates for 4 days ; 
this was, by a cloth-merchant of Mantua, who came here trying 

to fill his belly & his pocket, confirmed. 

“This morning my physician at Ferrara wrote me a para- 
graph too interesting not to communicate it to your friend 
Genl. Acton who is a philosopher as well as a statesman ; here 
it is: ‘Si le Cabinet de Vienne a le bon sens d’établir dans le 
pays Vénitien un gouvernement tant soit peu raisonnable, de 
deux Chambres et le Souverain, dans moins d’un mois, toute ma 
chére patrie s’y accroche; si zon, autant vaut un despotisme 
qu’un autre.’ Verbum sapienti. Adieu,’ &c. 


nla enice, 
“March 18, 1708. 


“ For God’s sake Sir Wm., move Heaven & Earth to prevent 
in time the Austrian Cabinet from playing their cards as ill 
as they do; tell our friend Sir J. Acton, that philosopher as 
well as statesman, that I ALMOST see with my own eyes 
the imperial arms, erected with so much enthusiasm, torn 
down again in Padua & Vicenza, with the same spirit in conse- 
quence of the horrid despotism they are establishing in that 
country ; yet have they given noble & respectable privileges 
to all Dalmatia, wch stands at the very door of Venice, & there- 
fore is the greater insult. 

“My physicians, who as you know, frequent all orders of 
men, assure me daily that if the Cabinet of Vienna, will but 

VOL, II. 16 


574 The Earl Bishop 


grant to the terra firma the same privileges as to Dalmatia, or 
the same as the Hungarians possess, or finally a transcript of 
the constitution of Brabant, for which country they have been 
exchanged, the Ferrarese, the Cremonese, the Modenese make 
no secret in every Coffee-house, in the very market place, to 
declare publicly, open & undismayed, that they will give them- 
selves to Austria. This is so publick it is confirmed to me by 
all servants; & above a score of Cisalpine Officers, who are 
4 months in arrear, & above 300 Cisalpine soldiers to whom as 
much is due, & who beg charity on the road, & always receive 
it from me, not only speak the very same language, but declare 
openly their resolution to desert and come here to Venice to be 
enlisted. | 

“My servants saw 300 Cavalry ’twixt Legnano & Mantua 
going to take possession of the latter, as they told. 

‘“ Berthier went through Bologna, as my banker tells me, 
but had not time to attend the musical Academy, but only 
to levy by requisition in that night 40,000 Roman Crowns, 
which were punctually given to pay part of the arrears of the 
Mantuan Army. 

“My friend Mariscotti, who married Lady Lanesborough’s 
daughter (Sophia, Lady Lanesborough’s fifth daughter, married 
in. 1787 the Marquis Louis Mariscotti who died in 1840) & is 
a chargé d affaires or something equivalent at Milan, writes 
me by a private hand that they are at the eve of a civil war, & 
the Austrian party, by means of the clergy especzally, greatly 
predominate. 

“That the whole seems to him to depend on the Govern- 
ment established on the Venetian terra firma, that if a reasonable 
system of freedom be established, the Cisalpine republic is 
dissolved in less than a month, & if not, un despotisme vaut bien 
autre ; it really makes my heart bleed, to see such fine cards 
so.ill played, & to consider by the stroke of a pen the French 
influence, principles, & despotism may in the course of a month 
be eradicated from Lombardy. 

‘““ Did you ever hear the amount of the booty from the Monte 
di Pieta at Bologna alone ?—three millions & a half of Roman 
Crowns, and some of the first families set adrift. 

‘“ All their plate put into requisition as at Ferrara, not an 
ounce left in any house, public or private. 

‘Did I tell you that at Ferrara my poor physician paid to 
their Commissary 600 ounces of silver plate, & my publican 400 
ounces ? &, aS you may guess, the rage of these . . . in town 
& country against the French is outrageous, undisguised, & 
unsuppressed. ; 


The Earl Bishop 575 


TURIN 


~ The private letters from hence keep us all on tip-toe, 
the revolution is expected daily ; they count 13,000 Piedmon- 
tese, one madder than the other, in the Cisalpine army, the very 
officers receive charity on the publick highway, you know how 
I travel, & I myself have given it; but their rage against the 
King of Sardinia, & their avowed contempt of him is horrid. 
The same French Commissary with the 2 English horses is again 
repassed but no more news of the quarters at Ferrara for 
12,000 men, the first column of 25,000. 

“Tis here supposed they are too necessary for the quiet 
of distracted Milan & distracted Vienna I should say, who 
takes no advantage of such chaos & confusion, which by some 
accounts is said to be evacuated, by others im statu quo—you 
from Otranto may know a true state; if evacuated, Lord G. 
has lost a great coup de main—t14 ships of the line, loaded with 
plunder, & two millions & a half of booty, principally in cannon, 
anchors, cordage, sails & silver plate. I had yesterday a very 
cold letter from Lord Spencer, full of the warmest acknow- 
ledgments to me. . . . I should have thought such a booty, 
& such a revenue at least as good as the Canaries, of whose 
strength, it seems they knew nothing of the matter. 

“ If you would know the real state of Lombardy, get I/ 
Momtore dt Bologna ; the compiler is a young man of great 
talents, admirably informed ; & neither embraces or fears any 
party ; alittle cynical on all, and more wit than belongs usually 
to a Gazetteer.’ 


A week later the Bishop wrote again to Wyndham—the 
“anecdotes” alluded to have unfortunately not survived with 
the letter : 


‘“ March 24th, 1708. 


~“ I send you Sir, as usual the inclosed for Sir W. Hamilton, 
& flatter myself you will find in it some mew & curious anec- 
dotes. There is no doubt but the Austrian Army is advancing 
with giant strides into the Cisalpina, probably with a view to 
relieve the Q. of Naples, who must otherwise decamp—but 
whither ? 

“ Do you think it possible there can be in the capital 40,000 
malcontents ready to rise ? 

“I know to a certainty from the Colonel* of a regiment, 


* Probably Colonel Charles Dillon who had married the Bishop’s niece, Harriet Phipps. 
His family had been highly distinguished in the service of the Kings of France. He even- 
tually became tw lfth Viscount Dillon. 


WOLI: 16* 


576 The Earl Bishop 


a man of great quality, & a near relation of our own, that the 
four regiments in garrison at Carna (?) openly in their cups — 
talked treason, & he himself as he walked his rounds, muffled 
up, had often heard them say ‘ Why don’t these French come 
& rid us from Austrian tyranny ? The gates will soon be 
opened to them.’ I am assured from too good authority that 
Tuscany is at the eve of a democracy & to be incorporated 
with the Roman Republic—the better to counterbalance Naples 
be it Royal or Republican. Do you believe it ?” 





Allusion has already been made (in the Bishop’s letter of 
March 10, 1798) to the seizure by the French on entering Rome 
of his valuable collections there—an immense store of pictures, 
statues, and objets d'art. In his absence the great body of Artists 
in Rome showed their appreciation of their munificent patron 
by presenting a petition (early in March) to the French Adminis- 
tration of the Finances of Italy, in the hope of preserving his 
collections intact. 

The Gentleman's Magazine, under the category of “ Interest- 
ing News from the Continent,’ reports the circumstances in 
an article “translated from a foreign journal’ as recording 
“an instance of gratitude no less honourable to those by whom | 
it was performed, than to the person who is the object of it.” 

“The undersigned Artists to the number of 343, French, 
Flemish, Savoyard, Roman, Neapolitan, Venetian, Tyrolese, 
Russian, German, English, Irish, Scots, etc., to Citizen Haller, 
Administrator of the finances of the Army of Italy. 

“‘ Citizen Administrator—Among the effects belonging to the 
English at Rome, upon which seals have been put, are different 
objects of Art collected by the Bishop of Derry Lord Bristol. 
The Artists who are at Rome conceive that they may venture 
to represent that this generous Irishman, having for these 
forty years past spent the greatest part of his income in employ- — 
ing artists of all nations, may be considered as a valuable and 
useful character to the fine arts which the French Republic 
protects. The Pictures and statues which he had purchased 
during the period, form a collection of the most choice works 
of the first painters and sculptors of our time ; unique in its 
kind and worthy of being preserved entire. But a more direct 
motive, Citizen Administrator, ought to induce you to reinstate 
Lord Bristol in the possession of these effects ; and this is that — 
these articles are the works of men of which a number of the — 
first artists, many of whom are French and Republicans, have 
been enabled to subsist, during years of War little favourable 
to the fine Arts. The important benefits which have been 


The Earl Bishop 577 


lavished upon the Artists of all nations indifferently by a gener- 
ous and impartial patron, induce them to present this petition ; 
and the protection which the French Government and the 
French Armies bestow upon the fine Arts encourages them to 
hope that it will be attended with effect.” 

“It does not appear that this liberal petition has been 
successful,” comments the Gentleman’s Magazine. We learn 
from the Bishop himself that the Artists presented a similar 
petition at the same time to the illustrious French General 
Berthier, who received it with generous consideration. In 
the meantime the Bishop, in great alarm about his treasures, 
wrote to his daughter, Lady Elizabeth Foster, in London, urging 
her to exert all her influence over Ministers on his behalf, a 
proposal that must have made her smile—there is no indication 
as to the place whence he wrote, but he appears to have been 
journeying southwards, intending to go to Rome. 


“ March 20, ‘1708. 


(“The Two Duchesses,” p. 152.) 


DEAREST ELIZABETH.—Now or never is the moment you 
can essentially serve me. All my effects at Rome are under 
sequestration to the amount of £20,000 at the very least. Could 
Mr. Pitt be induced to send a Minister to congratulate the 
Roman people on their emancipation, & appoint me to the 
Embassy, he would do himself and me a most essential service 
me because I should save all that immense & valuable & beauti- 
ful property of large mosaick pavements, sumptuous chimney 
pieces for my new house, & pictures, statues, busts & marbles 
without end, first rate Titians & Raphaels, dear Guidos, and 
three old Caraccis—gran Dio che tesoro—and himself, because 
such an embassy would wrench the Republick off the hands 
of their tyrants, despoilers & merciless task masters ; restore 
us the ports of Ancona and Civita Vecchia for our manufactures 
& cod-fish, & lay the foundation of a treaty of commerce the 
most beneficial perhaps of any in Europe. 

» Now, if either your friend Lord Spencer or, above all, 
your greater friend the Duke of Devonshire, or the Duchess, 
would effectually join in this lottery, you see, dearest Elizabeth, 
I should literally get the £20,000 prize. 

’ Dear girl, do what you can for me. As to the Duke of 
Richmond, I do not suppose he has now any interest, else he 
would refuse you nothing. 

“I am on thorns till I hear from you. A ransom was 
offered by General Berthier, but that is now suspended.” 


578 The Earl Bishop 


tee 


Berthier, Commander-in-Chief of the French Army in - 
Italy, after abolishing Papal rule, and abducting Pope Pius 


VI., had recently established a Consular Government in Rome. 


During his brief stay it appears that he had “‘ nobly’ offered | 
to ransom the Bishop’s ‘“‘immense property’ for the trifling © 


sum of £400; and he personally seems to have been friendly 
and sincere in his protection of the Bishop’s interests. 

A few days after the Bishop had written the above letter, 
matters were apparently going on favourably. 

The Bishop’s hopes being temporarily revived as to the 
safety of his treasures in Rome, his thoughts turned to the 


building at Ickworth which he designed to be the eventual 


receptacle of them. 

In high spirits, he dispatched the following characteristic 
letter to his old friend and neighbour, the learned and accom- 
plished Symonds : 


“29th March, ’98. 
“DEAR SyYMONDS.— Valuable old friend, you promised 
me in your last kind letter to do me all the service you can with 
respect to my mansion—& who more able—nec natura tua 
melius, quam ut possis—nec Amicitia tua melius quam ut velis 
—excuse the Parody. My young Hounds (he means Francis 
Sandys, the Architect, and his brother, the Revd. Joseph 


Sandys, in charge of the works at Ickworth) there, are now 


at a Fault—one brother deems that a gallery of 115 feet long 
will drown my mansion and eclipse its splendor—the other 
computes that less than 115 feet in the length of each gallery 
will not leave sufficient Room in the square of each office yard 
for Larders, Laundries &c. &c. suitable to the Mansion & the 
family that must inhabit them. Who shall decide when Doctors 
disagree—’tis I my dear friend, who make you a judge in Israel, 
therefore 
‘ Assume the God 


Affect to nod 
and Truly shake their spheres.’ 


“You on the spot like a true friend examine with your 
judicious Classical eye the relative proportions of this puzzling 
animal. Let it be, neither a bustard with wings too small— 
nor yet an heron with wings too large that drown or eclipse 
the Body—take if possible Arthur Young with you, that soul of 
fire,—& be good enough to report to me your deliberate candid 


advice, by which I order The Adelphi hereby to decide. I send 


you a petition to Genl. Berthier & the French Commissary 
Haller signed by 323 artists at Rome, which does equal honor 


*QL6 asnd a9n/ OT | 


‘yoaytyoaw ‘shpuns suns Ag yojays pv wWoAf appt OOL1 fo surlapssua UD WoAT 


‘IpIS YWON ‘YOM 








The Earl Bishop 579 


‘to them & to me—& which has saved my immense property 
there of Marbles, pictures, Mosaick pavements to the amount 
of £18,000 sterling at least—at least—dear Symonds do not 
delay your journey to Ickworth.” 

Addressed: ‘‘ John Symonds Esq. St. Edmund’s Hill.’’* 

But the Bishop’s high hopes were soon to fall. Berthier’s 
friendly intervention was disregarded on his departure from 
Rome—probably by Citizen Haller who was notorious for his 
unbounded avarice—and the Bishop long remained in uncer- 
tainty as to the fate of his cherished collections. His corre- 
spondence in later years as will be seen contains allusions to the 
vicissitudes which befel them from time to time, and they would 
appear to have been confiscated more than once. It is stated 
on good authority that at one time he redeemed them for the 
sum of £10,000, under an arrangement with the Directory, but 
that within a week they were again confiscated. f 


* Original in possession of the late Rev. William Symonds. 

+ So states Gage (‘‘ History of Suffolk ’’), who had his information direct from the 
Bishop’s son Frederick, first Marquis of Bristol. The total dispersion, however, which 
Gage records does not appear to have taken place in the Bishop’s lifetime. 


CHAPTER LX 


1798-1799 


MONTH after the first seizure of his treasures at Rome, 

and very soon after the date of his letter to Symonds, 

the Bishop himself fell into the hands of the French and he was 

detained a prisoner at Milan for nine months. This is the 

length of time which he mentions as the period of his detention, 

and as he was free by February, 1799, he must have been 

arrested in the previous April. Considering his habits of es- 

pionage on the French, and his imprudent manner of expressing 

himself in his letters, it is no wonder that he eventually experi- 
enced retribution at the hands of his enemies. 

Alexander von Humboldt, who was in Paris in expectation 
of joining the Bishop’s expedition to Egypt when he heard of 
the Bishop’s arrest, says that it was reported to be on account 
of his wishing to go to Egypt for political reasons. (‘“‘ Le Globe, 
Journal géographique (Genéve),” Vol. VII., page 185.) What- 
ever was the cause of his arrest, the story of his incarceration 
can only be pieced together disjointedly, parts of it being wanting 
in detail, or missing altogether. We learn from the Bishop 
himself a year later in a letter to Sir William Hamilton that 
he was arrested in bed at Pedo, a little village between Ferrara 
and Bologna when on his way to Rome. From Pedo, where, 
in his sick bed, he received a friendly visit from General Berthier, 
he was carried to Ferrara, being treated with consideration by 
his captors. His next move appears to have been to Milan, 
where he was confined in the Castle or Fortress. It will be 
seen from his subsequent letter to Lord Nelson that his imprison- 
ment was not so strict but that he could hospitably entertain 
his guards, some of whom, as he says, harboured feelings of 
bitterness towards Buonaparte and the new order of things, 
and were not immune to bribery. The Bishop, according to 
his circumstantial account, was shamefully cheated when, 
after being in prison four months, in August (1798), he was 

580 


The Earl Bishop 581 


offered his liberty by General Hullin, the French Commandant 
at Milan, on payment of 50,000 livres de France. Hullin 
pocketed the money, but the Bishop was not released. 

The following letter from the Bishop to Lady Hamilton 
was written during his detention, and after it had lasted some 
seven months, although he makes no allusion to his situation, 
and for a wonder is careful to avoid all mention of current 
affairs. Viewed in the light of his surroundings, the letter has 
a singular aspect, displaying as it does the undaunted vivacity 
of this wonderful old man. 


‘“ Milan, 
“24th November, 1798. 


‘“T know not, dearest Emma, whether friend Sir William 
has been able to obtain my passport or not ; but this I know— 
that if they have refused it, they are damned fools for their 
pains ; for, never was a Malta Orange better worth squeezing 
or sucking; & if they leave me to die, without a tombstone 
over me to tell the contents—‘ tant pis pour eux /’ 

“In the meantime, I will frankly confess to you, that my 
health most seriously, & urgently requires the balmy air of 
dear Naples, & the more balmy atmosphere of those I love, 
& who love me; and that I shall forgo my garret with more 
regret than most people of my silly rank in society forgo a palace 
or a drawing room. 

“But I will augur better things from the justice of my 
neighbour ; and that they will not condemn against all rules 
of probability one of their best friends unheard; one who, 
if he be heard, can say so much. 

“My project, then in case I receive the pass-port, is to 
travel on horseback as far as Sfalato in Dalmatia; & from 
thence cross over to Manfredonia—a passage of a few hours— 
& which in the year 1772 (he means 1771), I performed with my 
horses on board ; and afterwards, had a most delightful jaunt 
through that unexplored region Dalmatia; where the very 
first object which strikes both the eye and the imagination is 
a modern city built within the precincts of an ancient palace 
—for Spalato stands within the innermost walls of Diocletian’s 
palace. For that wise sovereign quitted the sceptre for the 
pleasures of an architect’s rule ; and, when he had completed 
his mansion in that delightful climate, enjoyed that, and life, 
to a most advanced old age—‘ The world forgetting, by the 
world forgot.’ A propos to Spalato/! Do not fail hinting to 
Sir William that a most safe, convenient, & expeditious packet- 
boat might be established in these perilous times between that 


582 The Earl Bishop 


& Manfredonia ; by which all despatches and all travellers, 
either for business or pleasure, might make a very short & safe 
cut between Naples & Vienna, & Naples & the rest of Europe 
without touching one palm of any ground but Austrian & 
Neapolitan ; and of course, without the risk of being ever 
stopped. 

“The small towns too are in swift succession. The whole 
country being a lime-stone rock, the roads will make them- 
selves, pay themselves, by means of good turn-pikes. 

“Nothing can exceed the dreariness, gloominess, and humi- 
dity of a Milanese sky in winter ; which I conclude, under the 
old régime led to all the hospitality & conviviality practised 
here by their voluptuous but social nobility. Now we have 
nothing left to comfort but another Nudi*—a son of Esculapius 
born in Italy; but an enthusiast for England & all that is 
English ; & like Nudi, when he has a pint of Madeira in his 
belly and the fumes of it in his brain, a most cheerful & im- 
proving companion: for I protest to you that, during my 
convalescence I made greater strides to recovery by his Attic 
evenings than by his morning potions or even his beef broth. 

“Sweet Emma adieu! Remember me in the warmest & 
most enthusiastic style to your friend & my friend & the friend 
of human kind. 

“Tf Sir William does not contrive to send me my passport 
I wil—I will—excommunicate him, & send him to the devil 
before his time.’’ (Supplement to ‘“ Nelson Papers”’ (pilfered 
letters), 1815). 


Leaving the Bishop in the Castle of Milan—to be detained 
there some two months after his letter to Lady Hamilton—we 
turn to Lady Holland’s Journal in England, in which, with her 
usual animus against the Bishop, she records the version of his 
attempted escape which had reached her, 


18th Decyorgaes 

“That abominable wicked old fellow, Lord Bristol is still 
kept prisoner at Milan. I believe even in his confinement 
he has contrived to make some miserable. He bribed his 
guard to let him escape, & when the moment was ripe for 
flight, he was unable to move, & several who were involved 
in his scheme were instantly shot on being detected. He 
is very clever & full of quickness & wit... .” ft 


* Nudi was the Hamiltons’ doctor at Naples, who often attended the Bishop there. 


+ Here Lady Holland relates the incident of the Bishop’s interview with Voltaire at 
Ferney. 


The Earl Bishop 583 


Lady Holland prefaces this note by some remarks which 
incidentally indicate that the Hervey family had incurred 
additional disfavour in her eyes by the marriage which had 
lately taken place of her brilliant friend, Charles Rose Ellis, 
M.P.,* with Elizabeth Catherine Hervey, only child of the late 
John Augustus Lord Hervey, and granddaughter of the Bishop. 

“Charles Ellis’ marriage is a blow upon his power,” she 
notes. ‘“‘ He ventured not only to fall in love, but to make his 
proposals without a previous consultation with the young Cato 
(Canning) the authority of whose little senate was infringed by 
such an overt act. There were fifty little ridiculous circum- 
stances about that marriage which made one laugh at the time. 
The ceremony was absurdly pompous; carriages full of her 
relatives accompanied them to the Church. As soon as the 
ceremony was finished, the bride who had according to etiquette 
been crying all the time was kissed round by the family to be 
wished joy. .. . It is a bold undertaking in C. Ellis to marry 
a Hervey, for they still keep up their strangeness of character 
that made a celebrated wit class mankind under the generic 
appellation of men, women, & Herveys.”’ 


Nor was Lady Holland’s vexation with the Herveys dissi- 
pated when Lady Bessborough revealed to her why C. Ellis 
so long delayed coming to see her after his marriage, the cause 
being the “extreme prudery”’ of the Bishop’s good daughter 
Louisa, Lady Hawkesbury : “‘ She is so shocked at the thoughts 
of my knowing (her niece) Mrs. Ellis, and I suppose C. felt an 
awkward shyness at coming without naming her, but he need 
not have been under any alarm on my account. It is difficult 
to affront or mortify me. . . . Prudery comes with an odd & 
questionable aspect from a Hervey, & Lord Bristol is full of 
wit & pleasantry. He is a great admirer of Lady Hamilton 
& conjured Sir W. to allow him to call her Emma. That he 
should admire her beauty & her wonderful attitudes is not 
singular, but that he should like her society is, as it is impossible 
to go beyond her in vulgarity,” &c. . 

While some in England declared the Bishop richly deserved 
incarceration, there were others, not unmindful of the benefits 
they had received from him, who were grieved to hear of his 
misfortunes. Among these were his worthy friends Mr. and 
Mrs. Denis, the artist and his wife so much associated with the 
story of Lady Hamilton. Denis, writing to the Countess 


* The Ellis family, like Lady Holland’s own family the Vassals, had been residents in 
Bpneice: C. R. Ellis was eventually created Lord Seaford, and his infant son became 
ord Howard de Walden on the death of the Earl Bishop. 


584 The Earl Bishop 


Lichtenau from London, remarks: ‘‘ Le pauvre Bristol est 
toujours au chateau de Milan, et sa détention est devenue plus 
rigoureuse, en conséquence d’un effort A se sauver. Sa santé est 
trés-faible ; du fond de sa prison il nous écrit quand il peut. 
Nous avons des espérances qu’il sera bient6t en liberté. Un 
bruit court en Allemagne qu’il a été arrété pour fouiller un peu 
ses papiers 4 cause de vous, pour voir s’il y avait des traces de 
l’argent placé par vous en Angleterre.* Quel triste changement 
pour notre ancienne société! Le Roi mort, Bristol 4a Milan, 
vous a Glogau, Denis le fils prisonnier! Votre sincére ami, 
DENIS.”’ + 


Mr. and Mrs. Denis, who had hitherto resided on the Con- 
tinent—she was Italian by birth—were now homeless refugees 
in England; and whether or not the Bishop ever seriously 
contemplated returning to Ickworth, and finding Mrs. Denis 
established at his gates, he had given her on parting in Germany 
a letter of introduction to Mrs. Sandys—“ Dearest Fanny ” 
(sister of Archdeacon W. Burroughs, whose husband, the 
Rev. Joseph Sandys, was in charge of the new building at Ick- 
worth). It is addressed, “‘ Mrs. Sandys, Ickworth Park, near 
Bury.” (Original formerly at Hardwick House, Bury ot 
Edmunds.) 

“My DEAREST FANNY, 

" The bearer is Mrs. Denis of whom I wrote to you 
so copiously by the last post : be sure that yr husband shows her 
not only my house, but that wch I destine for her on the Green, 
& weh if it suits her will admirably suit me, by giving me so 
cheerful & excellent a neighbour. Dear Fanny Adieu—B.” 

The Bishop was released by February, 1799, and again 
riding his “ Rosinante,” traversed the familiar road through 
Verona to Padua. There he stayed a month en route for Venice 
and Trieste. On arriving at Venice in hilarious spirits he wrote 
to Lady Hamilton the great news of the defeat of the French 
“ Army of Italy,” under General Jourdan, by the Archduke 
Charles of Austria on March 26: 


“A son Excellence Miladi Hamilton a Palermot en Sicile 


_ _* Denis assures the Countess of their confidence that she had never engaged in any 
intrigue against the State ; but they had always foreseen she would experience the most 
cruel reverse after the death of the King of Prussia, and that was why they always advised 
her rep a part of her funds in England, and unfortunately she disregarded their wise 
counsels. 


t “‘ Apologie ’’ (Countess Lichtenau, Vol. II.). The date of the letter is given as 26 
November, 1800, but it should be ’98. | 


} The Neapolitan Court, and with it the English Ambassaflor and Lady Hamilton, had 
fled from Naples in the preceding December to Palermo. 





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The Earl Bishop 585 


Bot March, ‘99. Venice. Hip! -Hip!: Hip! ‘Huzza:! 
Huzza! Huzza! for dearest Emma! Those doubly damn’d 
miscreants, first as French, secondly as Refs have thrown 
doublets & within these few days been beat—ay completely 
beaten twice. 

“General Lusignan arrived the night before last at the 
Golden Eagle at Padua where I had been lounging away a 
month among Greek & Latin professors. The General, accord- 
ing to his age & dignity, had gone to bed tired, but I saw his 
Aide-de-Camp who, like all others of his rank, preferred supper 
to sleep, just as my aides-de-camp, vulgarly called Chaplains, 
usually do after a journey of seventy or eighty miles. 

“This Aide-de-Camp speaking nothing but German, I 
summoned my Dragoman to interpret, & he told us he had met 
P. Charles’ courier going to Vienna with intelligence that the 
French had attacked either the left or right wing—to us Bishops 
it matters as little as if it had been the wing of a fat Capon— 
that P. Charles had made a decisive manceuvre, cut off this left 
or right wing from the rest of the body and totally defeated it, 
so that it was repassing the Rhine. So much for Buckingham, 
as Richard says, but yesterday at nine o’clock in the morning 
just as I was mounting my Rosinante to come off for Venice, 
arrives an Officer full gallop from the Army at Legnago, & 
proceeding to Vienna with an account that they had attacked 
& totally defeated the French Army, taken 3,000 prisoners who 
might better be called Deserters, & laid dead on the field 3,000 
more, & were then in pursuit of the rest ; & what is curious is 
that on that very day, being myself at Este, my servant cried 
out—‘ Milord the French & Austrians are at it, for I hear 
the cannonading,’ & so indeed we did very distinctly. 1,700 
Russians are now on this side Goritz, but I cannot learn with 
certainty whether they embark at Trieste for Ancona or proceed 
by land for Rovigo & Ferrara. God grant them success where- 
soever they go. In the meantime if you can get our dear in- 
valuable Queen to give me a short introductory letter to P. 
Charles* I have matters of great moment & character of great 
importance to communicate to him. Of the three demi-brigades 
with which I made acquaintance during my nine months abode 
at Milan, there are not ten privates who are not Royalists, & 
of the Gens d’ Armes who guarded me night & day all the Officers 
but one, a Mason by trade, & all the privates without exception, 


* The Archduke Charles was a brother of the Emperor Francis II., and son of the late 
Emperor Leopold I., who had been Duke of Tuscany when the Bishop and his wife were at 
Florence in 1777-8. Archduke Charles was, therefore, a nephew of the Queen of Naples, 
and grandson of the late Empress Maria Theresa. 


586 The Earl Bishop } 


are zealous Royalists and execrate the Directory: and all 
these universally advise the carrying the war into the South 
of France & especially to carry Louis 18th with one of the 
armies, as above two thirds of the Rep army would go out to him. 
This was the general opinion, & such was the sentiment of Col. 
Marion, Commandant de la Place at Ferrara, and now at Mantua 
—a native of La Lorraine Allemande. Sweet Emma, adieu, my 
direction is Augsburg poste restante.’’* 


On the same day he wrote to Sir William Hamilton : 


“ Venice, 
“March 28, 1799.+ 


‘““T write a triplicate of this day’s intelligence as it appears 
to me equally important and certain. | 

“The night before last General Lusignan arrived at nine 
o’clock at the Inn, the Golden Eagle at Padua. His Excellency 
went immediately to bed but his Aide-de-Camp informed us they 
had met a courier of Prince Charles carrying the news that 
his Royal Highness had attacked and beaten one whole wing 
of the French near B . . . and that when he came away the 
whole Army of Jourdan was in perfect flight. 

“Yesterday, Wednesday morn, just as I was mounting my 
horse arrived an Officer express from the Army of Legnago, 
with the glorious news that the Austrians had totally beaten 
those execrable highwaymen the French, between Legnago & 
Bevilacqua, taken above 5000 prisoners, & laid 3000 of Messieurs 
les Perruquiers dead on the spot, & were pursuing the rest. 

“In this case you may expect the universal revolt of all 
the Cisalpine since, as I came from Milan to Verona, nothing 
could be more loud & clamorous, or general than this discontent 
of all ranks of men—not a single recruit could be obtained. 

“Dear Sir William, make the King of Naples sensible how 
very thankful I am to him for the protection he so readily 
and so effectually granted to my property at Rome.t You 
once mentioned to me a wish you had to quit your political 
situation at Naples, but not your residence there, provided 
you could find a person who would cede to you a proper share of 
the emoluments. 

‘“T have a relation who, I believe, could obtain the minister’s 
consent, and at the same time satisfy your desires, if they 


* Original belonging to Lord Francis Hervey is published in Litton Falkiner’s ‘‘ Studies 
in Irish History,’’ page 99. 

+ “ Hamilton and Nelson Papers ’’ (379). 

t Ferdinand of Naples had entered Rome on November 29, 1798. 


The Earl Bishop 587 


remain the same as they were. You may direct to me under 
cover to Il] Conte Giovanni Brigido, Trieste,—and the letter 
will not miscarry. 

“Tf the Cisalpine be well managed, it may be put into 
universal insurrection, for nothing can equal the general penury, 
distress & discontent there reigning. 

‘Poor dear Mack is removed to Briancon in Dauphine. 
Adieu. Adieu.’’ (General Mack, the Austrian General, now 
Generalissimo of the Neapolitan troops.) 

In the first part of the following letter to Hamilton, the 
Bishop amplifies in an interesting way his former suggestions as 
to a route from Naples to Vienna, via Manfredonia, the Adriatic, 
and Dalmatia—the route which he had himself explored with 
the Abbé Fortis twenty-eight years before. 

In the second part will be found, incidentally, with news of 
the discontented French Generals, his very remarkable account 
of his experiences the year before, both when he was arrested 
at Pedo and subsequently when he was detained at Milan. 


py laieste: 
PeAprly 24580799; 

““T am here on purpose, my dear Sir William, to commu- 
nicate to you, if possible, some of those numerous and amazing 
events, which in so short a time are preparing the downfall of 
that gang of thieves, pickpockets, highwaymen, cutthroats 
& cut-purses, called the French Republic. 

“And most fortunately, Gallo¥ has sent an express to the 
Neapolitan consul here, with orders to forward the important 
packet immediately by any possible means. 

“Now this very incident reminds me of a plan I long ago 
conceived, for a very short, expeditious, & safe conveyance from 
Manfredonia to Vienna, & of course from Otranto to Torento 


“The different communities thro’ Dalmatia from Spalato 
to Zara, or even Fiume may in less than one short month form 
a very practical road through a lime stone country, such as I 
have often made through the county of Derry, for, at most, 
five shillings, or perhaps ten carlins per perch, that is 21 feet 
long. 

"4 If barriers or turnpikes be established on the road, the 
different communities can more than repay themselves, and all 
they want is an engineer to direct them in their work & lay 
out the road. 


* Duke de Gallo—a Neapolitan statesman and diplomatist. Ambassador to Vienna. 


588 The Earl Bishop ¢ 


“The highway from Duino here, lies exactly through such 
a country, has turnpikes upon it, and, as far as I can learn, 
cost about 8 or 10 pauls by the pertica or 21 feet. § 

“As every parish can work at the same time within its § 
own district, one thousand fertiche can be finished as soon as ‘ 
one hundred. 

“T have often travelled this road on horseback and often — 
traversed my horses from Manfredonia to Lesina or Spalato ; k 
and from thence to Zara is but one single day’s journey by change — 
of horses. So much for a road so important to the two Courts, — 
at present, for I conclude your courier can go perfectly safe — 
through the two Calabrias to Reggio. . 

“Now for news : 

“On the oth Prince Charles beat Jourdan a third time — 
between Schaffhausen & Soleure more decidedly than ever ; 
Jourdan recalled, & one Ernouff in his place; Berne in the 
hands of P. Charles and all the canton of Zurich in full insurrec- — 
tion, 40 pieces of Cannon saID to be taken &c. 

‘““So much for Germany. 

“In Italy the French, beaten everywhere, with the loss 
of at least 30,000 men as Count de Luc can tell you, are not 
retired, but ran away to Lodi & the intercepted letters from — 
Scherer and Moreau declare they must quit Lombardy unless 
that blockhead & old woman Macdonald* whom I saw in con- 
finement, can evacuate Naples & fly by forced marches to his 
succour. Mind that. The letters are printed and published. 

‘“ AJ] the Mantuan, Brescian, (not the Bergamese) but the © 
Cremonese & Milanese in absolute revolt & insurrection—The | 
crowing cocks, or Galli, bid fair now for being Capons. 

‘“ Peschiera & Mantua both blockaded perfectly, and the 
first, before this day, most probably taken. If Delmas & Marion 
(French Generals) the one Commandant du chdteau, the other 
de la place de Mantoue, remain in office then Mantua will soon 
be delivered to the Austrians, for my certain knowledge these 
two have for months past been in most intimate correspondence 
with the Generals Kaim, Godesheim, Elsnitz and Captain 
Hunt, and the Plan was often fixed between them to introduce 
upon the weekly market day between two and 300 soldiers & 
officers disguised like peasants, Captain Hunt himself to be one 
of this military masquerade, and at midnight to open one gate 
& admit Austrians, but it seems that for reasons not to be 
conceived, the Cabinet of Vienna bien sujet a caution, did not 


* Macdonald (1765-1840), Governor of Rome in 1798. Scherer’s reverse forced Mac- 
donald to evacuate the kingdom of Naples, but he obstinately disputed with Suwarrow 
the passage of Trebia. He was eventually made a Marshal and Duke by Napoleon. 


The Earl Bishop 589 


relish this stratagem, & never could be taught to consent to it. 
This fact I learnt both from Hunt & from Genl. Elsnitz, make 
your own shrewd remarks on it. 

‘MARION is a natif of LORRAINE ALLEMANDE, of the ancient 
végime, and like all those of that denomination, a warm Royalist 
& a most bitter anti-republican. He was Commandant de la 
Place de Ferrara when I was arrested in my bed at the village 
Pedo, first post & half-way between Ferrara & Bologna, and, 
at the tail of the 14 Huzzars or cut-throats, came into the first 
of these towns. 

‘“‘T remained there 18 days under the inspection of a Council 
of War, in spite of my two pass-ports, French & Cisalpine, 
a prisoner upon a neutral territory. 

‘Marion and his wife, Auguste & his wife, first Aide-de- 
Camp to Genl. Gyeux—or more properly Gueux, since he robbed 
me of a costly double-barrell’d gun*—& four more decided 
Royalists could not exist, dined with me everyone of the 18 
days. 

fe Marion & Auguste both assured me that the decided plan 
of Barras & his colleagues was to push the boundary of their 
republic as far as the Elbe, and to give the Court of Vienna any 
equivalent whatever, either in Bavaria, Silesia or Turkey, but 
have it they would, to destroy the British trade, & occupy a 
coast from Bayonne to Hamburg. 

“Poor General Berthierf who had so nobly ransomed my 
immense property at Rome for £400 sterling, came to visit 
me in my sick bed at Pedo. He said: 

‘““* Ne croyez-pas, milord, que moi ou Moreau, ou votre ami 
Marion, ou méme Delmas, nous servons par gotit, par principe, 
ou par choix cet exécrable Directoire, ce tas de voleurs, ou 
méme ce charlatan Buonaparte. Nous serons tous par nécessité 
pour éviter la persécution, ou pour faire le peu de bien que 
nous pouvons selon les occasions. 

‘“‘“ Mais de grace, milord, écrivez a votre grand Pitt, de ne 
plus persister a attaquer cette exécrable république, des cétés 
oti elle est hérissée de forteresses, et ot les deux partis sont du 
moins égaux. 

‘“““ Mais que toutes les armées entrent par les pays méri- 
dionaux ; Que le pauvre roy, Louis 18, se mette avec sa clique 
de Condé a la téte d’une de ses armées, et on verra que trois 


* He stated later in his claim to Buonaparte that this gun had cost him 200 guineas 
in London and was intended as a present to Prince Colonna in Rome, whose arms were 
engraved on it. 


+ Berthier had taken possession of Rome in March, 1798. Much as he seems to have 
detested the Republic and the Directory, he became one of Napoleon’s most devoted 
generals. He was eventually made Prince of Wagram. 


VOL. IL 17 


590 The Earl Bishop 


quarts de l’armée Rép : se rendra a lui; qu’on exige partout le 
serment de fidélité 4a un rol constitutionel, et qu'on déporte 


tout-de-suite tout ce qui est Rép hommes, femmes et enfants. i 
‘““Faites remarquer a votre cabinet que depuis Marseilles, 


Montpellier, Carcassonne et Bordeaux, jusqu’a Paris, il ne se 


trouve une seule forteresse. ‘ 


ce ¢ 


b, 


Que les sept huitiémes des habitans sont Royalists, 


composeront une quatriéme armée, et vous aideront a chasser 
ces gueux de Rép: (imo) L’armée Pruss: pourra entrer par 


Lyon, ville tant de fois en état de siége ; (2do) Autrichienne 


par Géneset Toulon ; (3d) Le Russe ou par... . et Marseilles, 


ou débarquer sur les bords de la Loire. 

‘“ “200,000 hommes dans les provinces méridionales—com- 
ment est-il possible que les provinces septentrionales, dépourvus 
des secours méridionaux de toute espéce, vin, bestiaux, argent, 
recrues, peuvent résister ? 

“On fera la paix, Milord, ou sur les bords de la Loire, 
ou sur les ramparts de Paris, et alors, si on a le bon sens de 
partager la France, cédant le Nord au Directoire, et conservant 
le midi pour le roi (Louis XVIII.), c’en est fait de la France 
pour jamais—elle n’inquiétera plus l'Europe, et jamais plus 
elle ne sera puissance maritime ; et votre Angleterre, d’on je 
me fais gloire de dériver mon “origine, n’aura plus rien a 
craindre.’ ) 

‘“ Here was the substance of his declaration, which I took 


down in writing as soon as he was gone, & which he seemed to 


pronounce with an amazing spirit of revenge, antipathy & hatred 
to Barras, Buonaparte, & indeed the whole French Nation. 

‘“Genl. Delmas was lodged immediately under my room at 
Milan & my balcony looked down directly upon his. After 
various civilities between us, he asked leave to make me a visit. 

‘“‘Such an offer was too interesting to be refused ; he told 
me he was not unacquainted with what had passed between 
Berthier and me, as well as between Marion & me. 

‘That both Marion & he, Delmas, were determined on the 
first occasion to give full proofs of their abhorrence of the present 
execrable system of iniquity which must moulder aan on the 
first bursting of a new war. 

“This & a great deal more of the same kind etsy between 
us, which now is verifying, & I am certain the French are 
now going out of Italy much faster than they came into it. 
Adieu. In a few weeks I set out for Pyrmont; but, dear 
Sir William, send me a pass-port for Sicily, enclosed to the 
Neapolitan Consul here at Trieste, though I am morally certain 
you will all be in Naples before long. 


The Earl Bishop 591 


“Tf you continue wishing to resign I can find you a pur- 
chaser. (The purchaser was probably himself, on behalf of 
his son Frederick.) Adieu, my best love to Emma, & my 
duty to the dear Queen.” 


The following letter from the Bishop to Nelson 1s here 
published for the first time. (Add. MS5., 34911, f. 41, British 
Museum.) 


‘‘ Trieste, 
“3 May, °99. 

“My Lorp, the subject of my letter will to a man of yr 
publick spirit & zeal for the welfare of England, be a sufficient 
apology for troubling you with it. It was my hap, my Lord, 
during nine months confinement at Milan to make an intimate 
acquaintance with two of the many discontented officers in that 
Garrison. The first a Captain Dalby chief engineer to Buona- 
parte whose avarice led him to employ this man in composing 
an atlas in 30 sheets of his excellency’s marches & victories, 
but whose avarice tempted him to defraud the poor Engineer of 
one half of his Profits, for having given him out of the Publick 
Purse 36,000 french livres, he required in return a Boon for 
himself of one hundred copies wch just shared the Publick 
gratification. The second is a Captain Vignon of the gens 
@ Armes who was frequently upon guard wth me during a week at 
a time, din’d of course at my.table & partook largely of my wine 
such as his miserable pay did not allow him to procure himself. 
He had often been at the foot of the Guillotine but as often 
escaped by the means of favor, protection, bribery, dexterity, 
but, what whetted his Revenge, he owed his danger to one of his 
comrades & his escape to himself. Captain Dalby is a nati 
of Geneva married to an Englishwoman educated from her 
infancy in Geneva—this was my first recommendation to the 
confidence of her husband. The Genl. in Chief La Prune was 
ordered to Toulon soon after the departure of Buonaparte. I 
persuaded Captain Dalby to accompany him under pretence of 
correcting errors in his Map & by a large supply towards the 
expences of his journey, I engaged him to make me a return of 
the state of Port la Margue the batteries of the entrance &c. &c. 
On his return he assured me The Garrison was composed of a 
few hundred Invalids—the guns of old bad Iron, on rotten 
carriages, & that neither in the Town nor Fort was there a 
supply of 20 rounds of either Powder or Ball. That of the 
miserable batteries at the entrance into The Rude there was not a 
single gun or carriage fit for use & that he was sure the Canon 


VOL. IL. eb) 


592 The Earl Bishop 


must burst at the very first explosion. Captain Vignon some 
weeks after was ordered to conduct some galley-slaves to 
Toulon. I gave him the same commission & the same supply 
for his expences. At his return he assured me of the same facts, 
& added that he had narrowly observed the fort & nothing could | 
be more practicable than a Coup de Main—but being so extra- 
ordinarily weak (?) he should himself, as a military man, knowing © 
its wants both of Powder & ball prefer forcing the passage thro’ — 
the miserable batteries a fleur d’eau, laying the town in ashes— | 
burning the arsenal, & then by sinking two or three of the old © 
Venetian Hulks, totally choke up the entrance into the Rude © 
—where is the famous Tunny-fishery. I could not neglect, — 
my Lord, so favourable an occasion as Ld. Wm.’s* return to — 
your Lordship of offering to your judgment an opportunity 
of annihilating That Marine, wch the glorious battle of the Nile © 
has so permanently crippled, & at the same time of testifying 
the very ample share I take in the applause of All Europe. 
‘ BRISTOL. 


“T enclose for your Lordship’s amusement a small pamphlet 
wch has made much noise here, and is reckoned a Masterpiece 
of Ridicule. I forgot to mention that the Royalists gain 
ground at Toulon, & of course would aid any operation wch yr 
Lordship’s zeal for the common cause would undertake—& 
such a blow wd be final to the Marine of France—either Re- 
publican or Royalist.” 


The Bishop’s scheme for the establishment of the French 
Monarchy with its headquarters at Toulon, such as he had 
advocated two years before, was still in his mind. He had 
lately been confirmed in it by his association at Venice with 
Cardinal Maury, who joined in the scheme, though, as may 
be supposed, with a different object. This great French Prelate, 
orator, and leader during and after the Revolution, was one 
of the chief supporters of the Monarchy ; he resided at this time 
in Venice, having escaped from Rome on the invasion of the 
French Armies, it is said, disguised in a wagoner’s blouse. 
The Cardinal, although perhaps considering half a loaf better 
than none, had, of course, at heart the ultimate restoration of 
Louis XVIII. throughout the whole of France, whereas the 
Bishop desired merely the weakening of that country by dividing 
it into two, a scheme which a statesman in England, the veteran 
Lord Liverpool, will be found actually considering as within 
the bounds of practical politics. 


* Lord William Bentinck, second son of the third Duke of Portland, and afterwards 
Governor-General of India. 


a es Si 


CHAPTER LX! 


1799 


* eater Bishop, soon after obtaining his freedom, renewed 

his correspondence with Arthur Young, and, as in the 
following letter he makes no allusion to his long incarceration, 
it seems likely that he chose to ignore the episode, which, how- 
ever, must have been well canvassed by his Suffolk neighbours. 
It was five years since he had written, rejecting a Utopian 
scheme of Young’s, and he now sought Young's approval for 
one of his own. This was no less than that the English Govern- 
ment should buy up all wine direct from the Continental pro- 
ducers at cost price, get rid of the wine merchant and the 
middleman, and sell it at a trifling profit to the public, who 
would thus obtain the best liquor with immense benefit to their 
pockets, and incidentally to their consciences, for the smuggler 
would no longer have any reason to exist. While in his advocacy 
of state-control, our eighteenth-century Bishop was thus not 
behind any socialist of to-day, it is clear that restriction in the 
matter of good liquor formed no part of his programme, and, 
indeed, would have found no favour in his eyes. He opens 
his scheme : 


‘“ Bologna, 
‘25th March, 1799. 
‘“ My DEAR FRIEND AND NEIGHBOUR, 

“Your last letter to me was on a project of your 
own, which I thought unjust & therefore inadmissible. [I now 
send you a project of mine which I beg you would treat with as 
little ceremony as I did your foundling, finding like a friend 
something to blame & something to commend. You area much 
better Financier than I am, but I am as good and as hearty a 
Patriot or well-wisher to our invaluable country & inestimable 
Constitution as you can be—& having a deep stake in it shall 
be ready to redeem it at any price—ever holding ‘that half a 
loaf is better than no Bread.’ 


593 


594 The Earl Bishop 


“My project is founded on fact—zo0 years ago... I 
imported my Claret at £15 per hogshead, & if you ask Parson > 
Rogers of Sproughton—he can tell you ‘The Bp. of Derry’s 
wine was a proverb for excellence.’ Why Government should 
not export as well as the Bishop of Derry I can not see. And 
if by a manceuvre like this they can help you Arthur Young, 
to drink yr wine at 14d. pr bottle, & your beer at 14d. per quart 
instead of 3d. and at the same time put 2 millions clear neat & 
hard money & ready money into the Exchequer, I think I may 
say: ‘Ed anché 10 son pittore?’ dear Arthur send me your 
genuine effusions of yr vast capacious mind on this subject, & 
then—by way of episode—pass a day with M. & Mrs. Sandys 
at Ickworth & give me yr opinion of my Insolent building rising 
there. What is become of your & Sr. J. Sinclair’s noble pro- 
ject for our waste lands ? 

| ‘“ BRISTOL. 


‘“T have sent 20 of yr (?) swingling ploughs over to my Tenant 
at the Downhill—but I fear they will draw them by the Horses 
tails.” 

The letter is accompanied by notes on a separate sheet, 
somewhat faded and mutilated, and bearing signs of being 
much conned and fingered. 


“Project for raising annually 2 or 3 millions and saving 
one third of expense. All other Governments in Europe 
(save only ours) possess a monopoly of Salt & Tobacco. I 
propose to ours: A monopoly of wine grounded on these 
facts: During 20 years residence in Derry, I imported all my 
own wines not through the merchants of Derry nor the fac- 
tories of Bordeaux, Lisbon, & Oporto but the Growers: Mons 
de Secondat, or Baron ‘Fiume, or Count Agricourmaee 
N.B. would Government wish to ascertain the exact quan- 
tity of Claret smuggled into England, Ireland, & Scotland 
during the last 20 or 30 years, they may know it to a hogs- 
head, for every Tun, Pipe or Hogshead exported from Bordeaux 
was registered, & the Port to which they are consigned specified 
—so that if 80,000 hogsheads are exported & only 50,000 paid 
duty it follows that 30,000 were smuggled.” ... 


We hear no more of this wonderful scheme nor what was 
Young’s criticism of it. But in his reply Young seems to 
have alluded to the Bishop’s order for twenty ploughs. If 
these were what the Bishop had ordered for Downhill, it looks, 
from the following rejoinder to Young, as if the Bishop’s memory 
was at fault : 


The Earl Bishop 595 


“Pyrmont, 
‘“‘2nd August, ’99. 
“MY DEAR SIR, 
“ The Greece Calende themselves cannot be more 
New or Inexplicable to me than the order you allude to as 
given long ago for 20 of yr ploughs. I have not the least 
recollection of such an order or of such an intention, but if 
by any mistake either of you or of myself six of such ploughs 
be ready finished I will order my Steward Shilleto to receive 
& pay them. As to your agricultural questions it is long since 
I have been in the habit of making such observation—the amaz- 
ing & tremendous Political crisis at wch we now stand absorbs 
all ideas all attention & all interests—That you may continue 
to enlighten us as luminously as you have done and prove 
the necessity not of Scotching but of killing the Gallic Snake 
is the hearty wish of yr friend neighbour and admirer 
‘‘ BRISTOL.” 
(Add. MSS., 35128, f. 135.) 


The Bishop wrote at this time to another Suffolk neighbour 
—his cousin, Mrs. Brand*—as appears from General William 
Hervey’s Journal. Ona visit to Mr. and Mrs. Brand at Polstead, 
he notes,t August 26, 1799: 

‘Mrs. Brand received a letter from B.B. (Brother Bristol) 
to go to Ickworth to see his impudent} building there, & 
take pot luck with his Architect.” 


So the Bishop was once more passing the summer at 
Pyrmont. Perhaps the house which he formerly owned there 
was still in his possession. To drink the waters for his health 
was presumably the object of his going there. But surely 
the familiar scenes must have painfully recalled the unhappy 
fates which had befallen his former associates—if indeed the 
old man’s spirits were sensitive to such impressions. 

Meanwhile his unabated mental activity and the multiplicity 
of his interests are indicated by such specimens of his 
voluminous correspondence as have survived. A series of 
original letters exist among the “‘ Liverpool Papers” in the 
British Museum from the Bishop to Charles Jenkinson, first 
Earl of Liverpool, a distinguished statesman and the father 


* Anna Mirabella Henrietta, daughter of Sir Robert Smyth, Bart., by Lady Louisa 
Hervey, daughter of John, first Earl of Bristol. 

t ‘ Journal,”’ page 431. 

t ‘“ Impudent” is evidently the Bishop’s own word—as he calls it “‘ insolent ”’ in his 
letter to Young. 


596 The Earl Bishop 


of one more eminent than himself (namely, the Bishop’s son- 
in-law, then Lord Hawkesbury, and later second Earl of Liver- 
pool and Prime Minister). There are also among these papers 
two letters from the first Earl to the Bishop—or rather copies of 
them—transcribed into the former’s notebook of his corre-_ 
spondence. Of these the first, which the Bishop presumably 
received at Pyrmont, is as follows : 

(Charles, Earl of Liverpool to the Earl of Bristol, Bishop 
of Derry.) | 


“ London, 
“13th June, 1799. 

“T was happy to receive the honour of your Lordship’s 
letter of the zoth ultimo.* I have long regretted that your 
absence from England has deprived me of that friendly inter- 
course with your Lordship which I could wish to cultivate, 
as well on account of the near connection that subsists between 
us, as of the advantages which I might derive from your Lord- 
ship’s knowledge & experience. 

“Tam much obliged to you for the Account of your con- 
versation with the Cardinal Maury; I have long respected the 
Cardinal’s character. He was certainly at the commence- 
ment of this revolution, the foremost Defender of the Govern- 
ment & Religion of his country. I agree with him that this 
country as well as every other part of Europe would derive 
great advantage from a Diminution of the Power of France 
which under any form of government is, in truth, the only 
Rival Great Britain has to dread, & which, as long as it con- 
tinues under its present government, must keep this kingdom 
in a perpetual state of Warfare, & though our Resources are 
still very great might in the end, perhaps exhaust them. I 
think that the plan suggested by the Cardinal if it could be 
executed would answer every wise political Purpose; But 
the execution of such a plan will depend less on the Govern- 
ment of this Country than on our Allies, by whose Armies 
every Continental Conquest must be achieved and secured. 
I think it probable, however, that in consequence of the late 
successes, both on the Rhine & in Italy, & by the further 
efforts that will be made when the Russian Army now on its 
march arrives on the frontiers of France, the southern part 
of that Country will come into their possession, & the Division 
suggested in your Lordship’s letter will of course take place. 
But the ultimate arrangement in this respect will depend 


* Apparently not preserved. The Bishop had probably written from Venice. 


A 


x The Earl Bishop 597 


on the Councils of Vienna & Petersburgh over which, I trust, 
we shall have a proper degree of influence. 

“T have the pleasure to inform you that Lord & Lady 
Hawkesbury are well. Ld. H. having obtained an Office 
which entitled him to be a Privy Councillor, & being now 
put in all the important Committees of Council, he is becomea 
very active man of Business, & recommends himself to his 
Sovereign and the Publick in this respect, no less than by 
his talent of speaking. 

“I have the honour to be with the greatest respect and 
Regard, My Lord, LIVERPOOL.” i 

“ P.S.—I must beg your Lordship to excuse my not writing 
in my own hand which shakes so much that I write with great 
difficulty, though in other respects I am perfectly well.” 


Next in sequence is a letter to Lord Liverpool from the 
Bishop which gives a glimpse of him on his journey south- 
wards later in the year. Although in Bavaria, he is surrounded 
by “ Chouans’’ escaped from their native Brittany, and is 
busily employed hatching plots with them for a British landing 
on their coasts, and discovering the weak points suitable for 
the purpose, just as he had done formerly with regard to 
a British landing at Toulon. 


(Add. MSS., 38233.) ‘“ Ratisbon, 
‘2c Novo! 
“My Lorp, 

“YT have had another long conference with my 
Breton-friend & the Marquis de Beausemblant who both 
agree that from all accounts of the Brittany Emigrés, & from 
their own repeated observations nothing can be more tempting 
either for a coup de main, ‘ou Pour Des tranches Ouvertes,’ 
than the condition of the ramparts at Brest in the year ‘96, 
and my friend the Comte de Boisderue testifies for their dilapi- 
dated state in the years ’98 & ’g9, that from Morlaix on his 
way to Quiberon Bay (?) & fort Orient the debarcation “ est 
des plus faciles.’ That the Chouans are still superior to the 
Republican troops & that upon the appearance of an English 
army & especially so large an one as 30 or 40,000 men, that 
province and Normandy & the famous Vendée cd easily be 
raised many more. Above all, not to employ any Emigrés 
whatever, ‘qui sont toujours sujets a caution, except their 
Priests or Bishops, and of them to send a good number— 
that perhaps the Curés of Boirgelins might make an exception 
to the Rule but Not Archbishop of Aix himself, trés sujet a 


598 The Earl Bishop 


' Caution, having recovered part of his family property. That 
the Bay de Conquéte is preferable for landing to all other spots, 
that it would be advisable to ransack Prisons for as many 
Breton sailors possible—they being all of the very best class 
—-but in case of exceptions, be provided with a Breton-priest 
for every 40 or 50 men, who may say daily mass & hear fre- 
quent confessions—the Ardent zeal glistening in the eyes of 
my two friends is inexpressible on paper as well as their 
confidence of success—yet not superior to that of my friend 
the Comte de Boisderue, by far the most intrepid & enthusiastic 
Chouan I have yet met, how far these Ideas may correspond 
with those of our Ministers I cannot guess—but the facility 
of exterminating the Allied Marine by one single stroke, the 
great probability of reaching Paris itself at the head of an 
enthusiastick Army of 120,000 men, the certainty that this 
enemy will multiply upon every day’s march, the extreme 
distance of the various republican armies, the distracted 
and divided attention of the Directory, the confusion in all 
Paris & its neighbourhood on the march—the rapid march of 
such an army who will find friends & abettors upon every 
league’s march, all promises a speedy close to the War; or even 
in case of a retreat the coasts both of Normandy and Brittany 
promise a safe re-embarcation.—B.”’ 


To this Lord Liverpool wrote the following reply. Note- 
worthy in several particulars, it indicates that the Bishop’s 
suggestions were treated with consideration in the highest 
quarters, while Lord Liverpool himself, as was well known to 
the Bishop, had the reputation of possessing great private 
influence with George III. 


‘““ Addiscombe Place, 
“27 of November, 1799. 
““My Lorp, 

“T have received the honour of your Lordship’s 
two letters of the 27th of October & 2nd of November; they 
both arrived nearly at the same time. I will take a proper 
opportunity of communicating to my colleagues the sugges- 
tions which your Lordship has been so good from publick 
motives to communicate in them. I can previously assure 
your Lordship that every attempt is making for collecting 
a Force sufficient to attain some one or other of the objects 
which your Lordship so wisely suggests :—The actual destina- 
tion of this Force must depend on circumstances & on the 
opinion of those who are employed to conduct the expedition. 


The Earl Bishop 599 


‘I am sorry to say the dissentions which have taken place 
between the Russian & Austrian Governments & between their 
respective Commanders, are such that there is great doubt 
how far we shall be able to induce them to act cordially 
together; the utmost endeavours will be used on our part 
to reconcile them. The strange Revolution that has hap- 
pened in France turns almost into Ridicule every idea hitherto 
entertained of free & Representative Government. It may, 
perhaps, though unfortunately, have the effect of changing 
the opinions of Mankind from one extreme to another. It 
will be the duty of British Government to maintain that true 
Mediocrity which is the support of all due authority on the 
one hand, & of true Freedom on the other. [ will not be un- 
mindful of your Lordship’s suggestions with respect to the 
characters of some persons mentioned in your letter. 

“With respect to the State of the Electorate of Hanover I 
will endeavour to avail myself of every proper opportunity 
of impressing what your Lordship has suggested to me; But 
I should observe that this is a most delicate subject with 
the Person principally concerned (George III.). He never 
talks with his Ministers, or with anyone else, except His 
Electoral Minister, upon it ; though all the World, and perhaps 
He Himself, is sensible that democratic Principles have invaded, 
not only the Individuals, but the Governing Members of 
the Electorate, in a manner that is highly disadvantageous 
to his Interest, as well as to the publick safety. This cir- 
cumstance is the less wonderful as it is understood that these 
principles, bad as they are, have pervaded even the Prussian 
Dominions, and they are kept under only by a Military Force. 

“T am truly sensible of your Lordship’s obliging attention 
to the love I have for pictures in presenting me with a Capital 
Performance of Gerard Dow; I shall desire your Porter to 
send it to me whenever it arrives; & I beg your Lordship 
to believe that I shall esteem this Picture not only for its 
merits, but on account of the Person from whom I have the 
honour to receive it. I certainly am an amateur of Pictures 
though I have no pretentions to be a Connoisseur of them, 
& I have endeavoured to make a small collection of them. 
I have the honour to be &c. 

‘‘ LIVERPOOL.” 


The Bishop appears to have gone to Italy for the winter of 
1799-1800, and was in his old haunts at Naples in the following 
_ spring and early summer. But the Queen, Court, and Lady 
Hamilton were not there, for they were residing at Palermo, 


rik te td 


a 
Ng 


600 The Earl Bishop 


having fled thither for the second time. Lady Hamilton 
on leaving Naples was fated never to return ; nor did the anton 
whose plans to reach his “ garret’”’ at Caserta had been frus- 
trated by events in three successive winters, ever see his dearest 
Emma again, after his visit to Naples in 1706. The Spa sE of 
Nelson had come into her life in the interval. 

The Bishop’s head was now full of another of his projects, 
with vast possibilities. This time it was for the draining of the 
Pontine Marshes. The Queen of Naples was to be induced 
to participate in the undertaking which was to bring her an 
immense revenue. He broached the subject to the Queen in 
a letter enclosed with the following, addressed to Lady Hamilton > 
—presumably this latter was not intended for Her Majesty’s eyes : 


—— 


“ DEAREST EMMA, 

“ The enclosed is a project for the improvement of the 
Pontine Marshes, in case the Queen and her Council choose to 
exact them from the new Pope Joan or . . . of Babylon... 

‘I myself was the first to advise the late Pope to the drain- 
age. I began the drainage with Rapini; they contain 800,000 
acres well worth 800,000 sterling ; and, believe me the Camera, 
as it is called, does not get £100 sterling. Now or never is the 
moment.’ Here is the letter enclosed for the Queen. (Pius VII. 
had been elected Pope in 1799 at Venice.) 

“a San Luccio, ce 18 Avril, 1800.” (‘ Hamilton and Nelson 
Letters”? (Morrison), Vol. IT., 482.) 

“Vous scavez a quel point je suis attaché a votre personne 
vous ne scavez pas a quel point je m’intéresse a vos intéréts ; 
mais en voici la preuve, et fiez vous, je vous en conjure, a 
Vadorateur de vos talens, et de votre cceur sensible. 

“Si vous étes dans ‘le cas @’ exiger du nouveau Pontif les 
Marais Pontins, soyez sfire que la plus mauvaise administra- 
tion vous fera rendre 400,000 livres sterlines ou bien 800,000 
onces Napolitaines par année. Is contiennent 400,000, arpens 
de terre ; chaque boisseau de froment semé rende 45 boisseaux 
de profit, et chaque boisseau de grano turco rende 110 boisseaux 
de profit. 

“Ces Marais Pontins ne rendent presque rien alla Camera 
dt Roma, étant accordés a des pantalons et des bouffons comme 
Duc Braschi, Architecte Morelli, & Rapini. 

“Tl faudra les diviser, ces Marais Pontins en fermes de 
deux cents arpens, et rien de plus, et batir, ou faire batir une 
maison pour chaque deux cents arpens. 

“Si votre Majesté trouve a propos d’adoptes cette idée, 
je réponde du reste. Le terrain au moyen des digues que je 


The Earl Bishop 601 


ferai faire se haussera en dix années de plus de dix pieds, et, je 
le répéte, vous fera un revenu de plus de 400,000 livres sterlines._. 

“En cas que vous voulussiez y ajouter la petite ville de 
Velletri, je m’engage moi, de la rendre un autre Gibelterra, ou 
un autre Luxemburg, et le tout sera un domaine royal supérieur 
a tout ce que posséde aucun monarque en Europe, et vous 
mettera dans le cas d’abolir bien des impots onéreux au peuple 
Napolitain.”’ 

Whether or not Lady Hamilton ever submitted this letter 
to the Queen, it remained among the Hamilton Papers. Agri- 
cultural developments were, indeed, litile likely to appeal to 
the taste of these ladies, whose thoughts now, wholly revolved 
round Nelson, love glory and revenge. 

The Bishop was at Naples in June as appears incidentally. 
A young English lady, Miss Eliza Ashburner, who was in 
attendance on one of the Queen of Naples’s daughters, and 
had lately married at Palermo a Signor Perconte, writes, 
June 9, 1800,* an account of her wedding to Lady Elizabeth 
Foster, addressing her as ‘““my own dear Mama, my kind 
my generous benefactress.’’ In this letter she says: “1 should 
have had unspeakable satisfaction if my reverend Lord Bristol 
had also come to my wedding, but he has remained at Naples.” 
When, however, Eliza Perconte wrote to the Bishop soon after- 
wards, she says, “unfortunately my Lord had left Naples.” 

The Bishop is next traced at Florence and Siena by the 
letters of Countess d’Albany. The insinuations about him, 
however, with which she seasons her prurient gossip to her 
bourgeoise crony at Siena, need not be taken as veracious ; 
while a disgusting allusion to the illness of the Bishop’s valet 
stamps the coarseness of this royal lady’s mind. 

The Bishop was a munificent patron of the Countess’s young 
favourite, Fabre the painter, who, being originally introduced 
to her and Alfieri by the Bishop, lived in intimate relations with 
them at Florence in the Casa Alfieri—a ménage a trois—his 
devotion to the Countess continuing after the death of the poet 
to the end of her life. Madame d’Albany manifests by her 

* “ Hamilton and Nelson Papers’”’ (Morrison), Vol. II., 489. Eliza Perconte was 


married in the Queen’s private chapel at Palermo, and Her Majesty and the Royal family 
all present ; Lady Elizabeth, as well as Sir William and Lady H., Lord Nelson, etc., who 


came to the Palace after dining on board his Lordship’s ship. . . . “ Happy indeed should 
I have been to have been honoured by your presence also, but you were so present, though 
not personally, since my thoughts were constantly with you.” I suggest that this pro- 


tégée of Lady Elizabeth Foster was the child to whom she had been ‘‘ Governess”’ (as 
Horace Walpole said), and whom she had brought to Italy in 1782—eighteen years before 
—the child who Walpole says was a natural child of “‘ the Duke of Devonshire and Miss 
Spencer.” That she was called ‘‘ Miss W.” as a child does not preclude her becoming 
“Miss Ashburner ”’ later. 


602 The Earl Bishop 








remarks little gratitude to the Bishop, whose patronage of 
Fabre kept him supplied with money, though perhaps it was_ 
not always regularly paid, at times when the episcopal purse. 
was depleted and awaiting the large reimbursements quarterly 
from England. , 

Countess d’Albany writes from Florence to Teresa Mocenni 
at Siena : 


“2 Aotit, 1800. 


‘Le fou Bristol est déja revenue ici (Florence) et dans le 
moment que je lisois vétre lettre il passoit sous mes fenétres. 
Je ne concois pas ce qu'il est allé faire a Siéne. Dites-moi 
je vous prie, s'il n’a pas pris la une femme qu‘il a ramenée 
ici: car on l’a vu a son retour se promener en voiture avec une 
jolie personne, et il a dit, en partant, qu’il alloit voir une de 
ses amies. C’est un homme extravagant, qui a de l’argent assez 
pour faire supporter des folies. [I] a loué une maison de cam- 
pagne pour cing ans a laquelle il fait batir un second étage 
pour son amusement. C’est un bonheur pour les ouvriers de 
Florence. Le tableau de Fabre avance beaucoup; j’espére 
que jusqu’a présent ce fou ne lui a pas manqué de parole pour 
ses payements.”’ 


“16 Aotit, 1800. 


“Le fou Bristol aura fait des folies tous ces jours de féte ; 
il prétend d’étre allé a Siéne pour la guérison de son valet de 
chambre qui est son maitre absolu, et ce valet de chambre a tout 
uniment la maladie Gallique: mais il ne veut pas le croire 
parcequ’il le croit le chaste Joseph. Le tableau de Fabre 
avance ; il sera bient6t terminé; J’espére qu'il sera aussi exacte- 
ment payé que fait, C’est le principal. Lord B. lui en a ordonné 
un autre encore plus grand, qui sera le jugement de Salomon. 
Avec qui vit ce fou a Siéne? Va’til chez la Londadari ?” 
(Surely a misprint for “le Londadari,’ who was Cardinal- 


Archbishop of Siena—and therefore there is here no occasion 
for scandal.) 


“23 Aott, 1800. 


“Bristol tombe de cheval a tout moment, sans jamais se 


casser la téte: J’espére qu'elle restera entiére jusqu’a ce que 
le tableau de Fabre sera payé.”’ 


CHAPTER LXIT 
r8o1r 


ORD CLONCURRY in his “ Personal Recollections ” 
remarks of the Bishop, whom he came across in Italy 
towards the end of the Bishop’s life, that his “ irregularities ”’ 
were so strange as to render any story that might be told about 
him credible, and of course to cause the invention of many that 
in reference to any other person would be incredible. Bearing 
in mind the last sentence as a caution against too readily believ- 
ing everything related about him, the following story of the 
Bishop in his latter years may be here quoted as told by one 
Pryse Lockhart Gordon in his sprightly Memoirs.* If not as 
veracious as it professes to be, it had doubtless some foundation 
in fact. The narrator, travelling in Italy with young Lord 
Montgomerie,+ fell in with the Bishop in 1801. He says: 
“The celebrated B—p of D—y the E—1 of B—I, in consequence 

of the dissolution of the nine days wonder the Cisalpine republic, 
made his appearance in Tuscany a few months after our arrival, 
and being lodged at the same hotel with us, Lord M—— had 
the honour of a visit from his Lordship, for it is the fashion for 
the new arrivals to wait on the residents. Mr. Wyndham had 
prepared us to see a very extraordinary personage, and we were 
the less surprised at his eccentric conversation and manners, 
when we met him at dinner, although on this occasion he was 
on his good behaviour for he had been in great disgrace with the 
Grand Duke.t The circumstance which occasioned this 1s so 
singular that I shall relate it, and as I had the details from Mr. | 
W—rm, I cannot doubt its veracity.” 


FO VOl.4.,.page 172. 


+ Lord Montgomerie, born in 1773, eldest son of the twelfth and father of the thir- 
teenth Earl of Eglinton. 


t Ferdinand, Duke of Tuscany, Archduke of Austria, succeeded his father, the Emperor 
Leopold, as Duke of Tuscany. He was brother of the Emperor Francis I1., and of the 
Archduke Charles, the Austrian General, and nephew of Maria Caroline, Queen of Naples. 


603 


604 The Earl Bishop 


Some particulars in the following paragraph by which its 
narrator proceeds to introduce his story are so unveracious that 
it seems improbable that Wyndham, the English Minister at 
Florence, who knew the Bishop well, could have been responsible 
for them : 

“The prelate it seems had been obliged to quit Paris, where 
he had been residing for some years, by the French Revolution, 
and took an asylum in Tuscany, occasionally visiting Rome 
and Naples and astonishing all ranks by his freaks and eccen- 
tricities. Under pretence of being a patron of the Arts, he 
became quite a Maecenas, and so far he benefitted them that he 
scattered large sums among poor painters and purchased pic- 
tures without discrimination. 

“In one of his journeys from Rome to Florence he halted 
at Siena, and when sitting down to dinner the procession of the 
Host happened to pass under the windows of his hotel. It 
would appear that his Lordship had a particular aversion to 
the tinkling of bells. Probably without thinking of the conse- 
quences, he seized a tureen of pasta, and the sash being open, 
threw the contents into the midst of the holy group. 

“Such a sacrilegious profanation of the most sacred of 
ceremonies I need hardly observe, occasioned the greatest 
dismay among the priests and other assistants as well as spec- 
tators, who assailed the house en masse, determined to wreak 
their vengeance on the perpetrators of so monstrous an outrage. 

“The Bishop, however, had fortunately made his escape by 
a back way along with his valet, and by an ample distribution 
of gold found the means of concealing himself until night, and 
of procuring post-horses, to transport him from the Tuscan 
territories, never stopping until he reached Padua, at that time 
garrisoned by French troops. 

“A report of this flagrant violation of the most sacred cere- 
mony was immediately made to the Grand Duke, who issued 
an edict ‘ banishing the perpetrator from the Tuscan Dominions 
for ever, under pain of the galleys.’ It might be imagined that 
his Eminence, after such a hair-breadth escape, would have 
become more prudent, especially as he had obtained permission 
to enter a territory at war with his country, and without a 
passport: but he had not been many days settled in the Cisal- 
pine Republic when he despatched a letter to Mr. W., beseeching 
him to interfere in his behalf with the Grand Duke, and stating 
that the aggression he was charged with was purely accidental, 
not being aware, when he threw the dish of horrible fasta out 
of the window that the Host was passing. 

‘“ Had his reverence abstained from Politics in this despatch 


The Earl Bishop 605 


_ (which as a matter of course was opened by the authorities) 
no offence would have been taken for the insult offered to re- 
ligion, as the new republic did not meddle with the affairs of the 
Church ; but he had commented on the state of things and the 
imbecility of the Government, indulging in his naturally satirical 
humour. 

“This barefaced impudence of a maudit prétre Anglais, 
who had taken refuge in an enemy’s country, after escaping 
from the galleys in another (for he had made no secret of the 
cause of his quitting Tuscany), raised the indignation of the 
French Commandant, who gave orders for the arrest of the 
hoary culprit, denounced him asa spy, and threatened him with 
the guillotine, but the goose which lays the golden egg is not 
commonly put to death except in the fable : and as the Bishop 
was well known to be rich, the governor contented himself 
in the meantime with placing his prisoner under survetllance 
at his hotel, making him pay an amende of 5,000 francs for the 
good of the State, and directing him to furnish daily a dinner 
of six covers for the maintenance of a guard which was placed 
over him and a sentinel posted at his door. The strict durance 
continued for several months, during which his reverence lived 
like a Prince, and had the honour of entertaining very frequently 
the Commandant and other Officers of rank. His finances, 
however, began to dwindle, and he saw no end to his confine- 
ment. In this dilemma he began to entertain hopes of his 
release by the never failing means of a golden key, and marked 
the Officer who had charge of his person as a fit instrument. 
Accordingly he soon found an opportunity of a private audience 
with this Cerberus, when he proffered a reward of five hundred 
louis by a draught on his banker at Paris on condition that 
he would procure his enlargement, besides paying all the ex- 
penses of his transport to Trieste, and for this latter purpose 
he would furnish him with /’argent comptant. Without wait- 
ing for a reply to these proposals, he pulled out a purse containing 
fifty sequins, and put it into the hands of his caro amico. It 1s 
not to be supposed that a wretched Italian Subaltern could 
refuse such a bribe. The Bishop was rich and not wanting 
in address. His keeper could not resist the temptation of 
enriching himself without committing any very immoral act, 
and seized the gold, promising to do all in his power to forward 
his Eccellenza’s views at the risk of his neck. He was by birth 
a Venetian, and by means of a friend and relation the arrange- 
ments were soon made. The Priest feigned indisposition, 
kept his bed-chamber a few days, until all was ready. At 
midnight the pious man was crammed into a hamper, and 


VOL: 11. 18 


606 The Earl Bishop 


transported on the shoulders of a facchino to the Brenta, where © 
a boat was ready to convey him to the Bocca, and put him on 
board a felucca, which had been hired to land him at Trieste. 
No sooner had he planted his foot on the Austrian territory 
than he despatched a letter to Lafitte desiring him not to pay 
the bill of five hundred louis, which he said had been extracted 
from him by the French Commandant at Padua under fear of 
death. At the same time he wrote to that Officer to denounce 
his liberator.” 

Against this grave charge—so lightly brought—of in- 
eratitude to his deliverer, there may well have been rebutting 
evidence in the Bishop’s favour. The above circumstantial 
details, however, as to his detention at Padua and his escape 
thence by the river, seem to point to his having undergone 
imprisonment twice, and to the incident having occurred at 
some time subsequent to his confinement at Milan—unless 
indeed we are to suppose Gordon, or his authority Wyndham, or 
both, to have mixed up the fact of the Bishop’s confinement at 
Milan with large additions drawn wholly from imagination. 
Unfortunately the matter must remain obscure. The Bishop’s 
correspondence to the end of his life continues at intervals 
to refer to his experiences at Milan and the redress for mal- 
treatment there which he claims from Buonaparte. 

The letter we are about to produce refers to his attempted 
escape from Milan during his incarceration there, and his record 
of the treacherous treatment he suffered in connection with it 
is perhaps the other side to Lady Holland’s story, already 
quoted. Nowhere, however, is any trace to be found of any © 
escape from Padua down the Brenta. 

The following is addressed to Messrs. Peregeaux, his bankers 
in Paris. (From the original in the possession of his great- 
grandson, the Rev. Sydenham Hervey, at Bury St. Edmunds.) 


“Rome, 
““8 Mars, r8or. 


‘“MESSIEURS, c’est pour la troisiéme fois que je tache de 
vous faire parvenir une lettre pour le Premier Consul (Buona- 
parte) dont la haute réputation pour une Justice sacrée me fait 
tout espérer. 

““Aprés mon Arrestation dans le pays neutre de la Cis- 
alpine et malgré tous mes passeports, tant Francais que Cisalpins, 
_ je fus volé par deux Généraux Divisionnaires. 

“L’un par un billet que je conserve encore m’enleva de 
force un Fusil a deux Canons qui m’avait cofiité a Londres plus 
de 200 guinées—étant destiné en cadeau au Prince Colonna de 


The Earl Bishop 607 


Rome, dont les armes y étaient gravés en Or et en Argent, et 
en Nacre de Perle. C’est le Général Gyeux qui me l’enleva— 
j’en atteste le Citoyen Marion alors commandant de Ferrare, et 
puis de Mantoue ; il me porta lui méme, le billet, les larmes aux 
yeux. 

“Je demande que ce fusil soit restitué en vos mains. 

“Le Second Vol est plus grave—sur le 22 Aotit, 1798, le Com- 
mandant de la Place de Milan m’envoya un billet par un Emis- 
saire, le Citoyen Aberties, graveur de Profession, dans lequel 
il m’offrit ma liberté et son passeport moyennant 50,000 livres 
francaises payées au citoyen Aberties pour lui. La somme 
fut payé au dit Aberties par mes banquliers, Aboldi & Brunati, 
selon les certificats que je vous ai déja remis une fois, et que ces 
banquiers ont la bonté de vous remettre de rechet ; et si le 
Premier Consul demande d’autres preuves, je ne manqueral 
pas de les envoyer. 

“ Wullin* le Commandant recut la somme et moi restai 
en Caches cing mois aprés, quand le Genl. Poubert me fit 
sortir ‘J’attens de la Justice du rer Consul qu'il me fasse 
remettre entre vos mains cette somme de 50,000 francs qu’on 
m’a véritablement escroqué; et de votre longue et ancienne 
amitié je me flatte d’étre appuyé autant qu'il est nécessaire.— 
BrRIsTOL, EvEQUE DE DERRY.” 


During the spring of 1801 the Bishop was again in hot 
water—in this instance socially and not politically. By his 
reckless tongue he unwittingly made two young men his enemies 
who publicly gibbeted him, the one by his pencil, the other by 
his pen. Both Germans, the first was the well-known painter 
Rheinhardt and the second the writer and traveller Seume. 
While the Bishop was apt to presume upon his reputation for 
wit and pleasantry, and in the highest Continental society was 
everywhere privileged to indulge his freedom of speech, even 
before Kings and Princes, his sallies were likely to be less toler- 
ated and little understood by men of a different social order, 
especially by middle-class Germans who took themselves and 
their own merits seriously, and were not versed in the art of 
parrying the Bishop’s badinage—which was indeed not of the 
most tactful or delicate kind. 

Seume, a young man of talent, a native of Saxony, of humble 
origin and no friend to aristocracy, set out on foot from Germany 
in December, 1800, to travel to Sicily with the object of writing 
a book. Passing through Rome a few months later, he appears 

* Pierre Auguste Hullin, a French General, born in Paris, 1758, died 1841, son of a 


shopkeeper. Headed the people’s siege of the Bastille, was Governor of Milan in 1798. 
Eventually concerned in the death of the Duc d’Enghien. 


VOL, II. 18* 


608 The Earl Bishop 


to have fallen in with the Bishop or at least to have heard 
there the story of his friend Rheinhardt’s quarrel with him, over 
which all Rome was laughing on account of a caricature which 
the painter had drawn of the Bishop. Seume published his 
version of the story on his return home in his book “ Spazier- 
gang nach Syrakus,” apparently with the object of gibbeting 
an “‘English Peer’’ and at the same time belauding his own 
compatriot and friend. While the incidents of the quarrel 
as related by Seume do not appear particularly creditable to 
the manners of either party concerned, his grosser aspersions 
on the Bishop maliciously added to the story have already 
been referred to in our pages as refuted by Countess Lichtenau. 


“For some years,” he says, “‘ there has been staying here 
(Rome) an Englishman whose whimsical character is pretty 
well known throughout Europe. Whether as a peer and one of 
the nobility of the nation, or as a Bishop and an ornament of 
the English Church, he has become notorious. This nobleman 
through the accident of riches has constituted himself a con- 
noisseur and patron of art and a leader of taste; yet so un- 
fortunately indeed that in Italy, according to those who know, 
he hates Raphael, and, to his cost, has brought into prominence 
his deos minorum gentium. He has paid dearly for this and he 
was perhaps deceived about many in the desire to humiliate 
the genius which he stamped as mediocre. The rich English- 
man was pleased with much that would scarcely be admitted 
into the best collections. Our own countryman (Rheinhardt), 
however, was not submissive enough to become his client. 
He walked, rode and drove with him and invited him frequently 
to his house. Then the Peer began his usual ill-bred behaviour 
towards him, but did not find a due civility on his part. On 
one occasion he invited him to dinner. The artist found a 
respectable company of strangers and Romans to whom he 
was introduced by the Peer with a great flourish as a unil- 
versal genius, an arch-cosmopolitan and a Jacobin leader— 
they calla mana Jacobin who does not bear himself submissively 
and patiently towards the very least of the nobility or keep on 
confidential terms with them. The tone he adopted was dis- 
pleasing to the artist, and a stranger who perceived it tried to 
draw him out of a painful situation by asking after his father- 
land. ‘He was, andis,a man who has no fatherland,’ the Peer 
interrupted noisily, ‘he is a cosmopolitan, and is at home 
everywhere. * ‘And yet, ‘my lord,’ replied ‘the vactisimaaes 


* The Bishop probably intended no offence by this sally. ‘* Cosmopolitan ”’ was surely 
a compliment from this cosmopolitan bishop, who was himself ‘‘at home”’ in every country. 


The Earl Bishop 609 


have a fatherland of which I am not at all ashamed and I hope 
my fatherland will not be ashamed of me. Sono Prussiano’ 
(Iam a Prussian). They were speaking Italian. ‘ Prussiano,’ 
said the host, ‘ma mt pare che siete Russiano. That was 
indeed good-breeding towards a man he had invited to dinner ! 
The honest, worthy artist made his bow to the company, and 
not deeming the Peer worth so much asa glance, he left the room 
and the house. Upon returning to his own room the following 
is pretty nearly the letter he wrote : 


““«My Lorp, everyone knows you are an old fool who will 
never mend his ways. Were you thirty years younger, I should 
demand satisfaction for your ill-mannered coarseness, in the 
way that people of position are justified in demanding it. But 
you are safe from that now. I value every man as I find him, 
without consideration for his position or fortune, according 
to his worth, and you are worth nothing. You have all that 
you deserve—my contempt.’ 

«‘The Peer held his sides with laughter over this bluster ; 
probably he is accustomed to such scenes. But the draughtsman 
sat down and finished the page which I send to you (the cari- 
cature). The long stretched-out pig, the full bottles above— 
and the empty ones below—the glass, the finger, the crozier, 
the big antique wine-jar which leans against the stick, he hits 
them all off with bitterness—but all is true to the life. This 
75-year-old parson* does not let any girl alone ; to the end 
of his days he will be taken up with Lucinda. When sin 
perforce would leave him, he will not let sin go.f 

«The Peer was told about the drawing, which went the round 
of Roman society, and gnashed his teeth ; he never supposed 
any man without money or connections would be so insolent. 
In the end, according to the usual custom of those who have 
to make the best of a losing game, he said: ‘ He has revenged 
himself like a man of genius.’ 

“ The drawing I have seen, and I have no hesitation in letting 
you into the secret. He addsina note: ‘After mature con- 
sideration I have no hesitation in letting the whole thing be 
printed here. The affair has extended this way and that. For 
such delinquencies there is no punishment like public opinion— 
to be open, and to let documents be made public. The parties 
are the painter Rheinhardt and Lord Bristol. From Bristol no 
improvement is to be expected ; but others should not be let 


* The Bishop was, in fact, seventy. 
+ Countess Lichtenau declares this statement as unseemly as it was false. 


610 The Earl Bishop 


become what he is, and on this account the matter should be 
published.’ ”’ 

Countess Lichtenau (‘‘ Apologie,’’ 1808), when asked her 
opinion of Seume’s anecdote some years after the Bishop’s 
death, said that Rheinhardt should have followed the example 
of “‘an English Prince’’ (Prince Augustus Duke of Sussex) 
‘““ who took no offence when Bristol said that he brayed.”’ ‘‘ Herr 
Rheinhardt ought not to have taken umbrage at the word 
Russiano,’ which was evidently intended to rhyme with 
Prussiano. Yes, he might have silenced Lord B. immediately 
if he had put the question to the assembly to whom Bristol had 
introduced him as a Jacobin. How could they credit such a 
thing when my lord was the host and in accordance with his 
position, an arch-aristocrat ?’’ She would pledge her word 
that Bristol instead of displaying temper would have embraced 
him and exclaimed “‘ Bravo!” A similar incident had occurred 
in Florence. The Improvvisatrice Fantastica asked him at one 
of the most select gatherings to suggest to her a theme for 
improvisation. Bristol in a wanton mood made the impertinent 
suggestion, “‘ Les culottes des sans-culottes.” The Poetess, 
indignant, gave a tart and witty repartee. Thereupon Bristol 
jumps up from his seat and, gallantly kissing her hand, calls out: 
‘“ Brava!’ and then proposes the entirely correct subject. 
“ Parallel between Ancient and Modern Rome ”’ ! 

“Much edified by this anecdote,’ relates the interviewer 
of the Countess, “I continued to question the Countess with 
regard to the paragraph (of Herr Seume)—neither as a peer 
was he a credit to the nation, and neither as a Bishop a credit 
to the Church. The Countess did not defend the statement as to 
the Bishop, for Bristol (she said) professed no religion, although 
he had strong innate principles. But the Peer she took under 
her protection. She said that, despite his absence from England 
which was chiefly due to his inability to weather the English 
climate, he remained in constant correspondence with Pitt, 
and the latter often called him in his letters ‘ Mon second Pére,’ 
an appellation that particularly applied to Bristol the states- 
man. He, on his side, waxed enthusiastic about Pitt.” 


The mention of Pitt recalls the fact that our chronicles 
have reached the year of the Union of Ireland with Great Britain ; 
and that the Bishop supported the measure. Nor was he 
inconsistent in doing so, for, as has already been pointed out, 
he had for many years been an advocate of the Union, even 
when most violently opposed to the Government. 

Some twenty years earlier Sir Edward Newenham made 


The Earl Bishop, 611 


a ground of complaint that the Bishop “is an advocate for 
that absurd idea of making the Parliaments of both kingdoms 
one.” The Bishop’s letters at the same date to his daughter 


Elizabeth and to Boswell respectively will be remembered as 
bearing on the same subject. 


CHAPTER LXIII 
T8or 


INI? letters are extant from the Bishop to his children or 

from them to him to show what were the terms existing 
between them and him in his later years. In letters to Lord 
Liverpool he mentions incidentally his son Frederick as his 
“dear Lord Hervey,’ and he professes warm affection for his 
youngest daughter Louisa, Lady Hawkesbury, although it was 
many years since he had seen her. 

To his good wife, from whom he had been estranged and 
whom he had not seen since 1782, he wrote from time to time 
on business matters or family affairs, and it is likely in a dis- 
agreeable and scolding style. Their daughter Elizabeth gives 
a sidelight on this state of things in a letter to her son, Augustus 
Foster, in August, 1799. (‘“‘ The Two Duchesses.’”’) ‘“ We leit 
Ickworth yesterday,’ she writes, ‘“ we travelled rather with 
heavy hearts, for there had been unpleasant letters from my 
father, & my dear mother was low & unwell. I cannot tell you 
at present what they were, but most certainly he is a cruel 
man.’ It seems likely that the daughters had a personal 
interest in the matter under dispute. 

Lady Bristol died at Ickworth in December, 1800. 

A letter from Lady Erne to her nephew, Frederick Foster, 
informs him of “ the grievous loss we have all sustained in the 
death of the best beloved mother. It happened suddenly 
yesterday morning from a spasm in the stomach. No mother 
could be a greater loss to a daughter than she is tome. I am 
sure you, dear lad, will share it, & lament her who was every 
way deserving of affection and veneration from every part 
of her family.’’* 

The Bishop was extremely displeased with his wife’s will | 


* The date of the letter, perhaps by a printer’s error, is wrongly given as October 
20. It should have been December 20. Lady Bristol was buried at Ickworth, Decem- 
ber 27, 1800 


612 


The Earl Bishop 613 


in one particular—certain leases in the diocese of Derry were 
held on trust during the joint lives of himself and his wile. 
Lady Bristol, in her will, gave directions as to the disposal of 
these leases on her death. Apparently she had no legal right 
to do so, as the “‘ power of appointment ’’ was vested in the 
survivor. The trustee of this trust—appointed many years 
before—was Lady Bristol’s brother, Sir Charles Davers, a man 
whom the Bishop, whether rightly or wrongly, now regarded 
with suspicion and hostility. 

The subject of Lady Bristol’s will henceforth frequently 
crops up in letters from the Bishop to Harry Bruce. The Bishop, 
it is evident from these, became more and more dependent on 
the services of Bruce, with regard to his affairs in Ireland, 
whether of private business or relating to the see. 


* Kome, 
P7tne [alee LOO Le 


“Your two letters my dear Harry arriv’d the Cart before the 
horse—®& the first shall be last & the last shall be first. This 
is to renew my entreaties to you instantly to transmit to me 
Duplicates of a letter of Attorney empowering you to pass the 
Accounts of Mr. Gouldsbury, Mr. Bond and all the under- 
Agents of the lease-hold estate. . . . As soon as Ickworth is 
finished, I return to B.Scullion. . . . Ecclesiastical matters. 
If Mun fails, then my friend Mr. McCausland’s son-in-law to 
succeed him. If any other Rector gives way, then Mr. Christie 
to succeed—Mr. Oliver McCausland or Harrison Balfour— 
as the Vacancy happens.—but if Mr. Balfour succeeds to Waddy 
or Sowdin, or another tottering and fallen knight of the Woetful 
countenance, then O. McCausland succeeds Balfour, & Christze 
leaps into Kilreah. Better than this I cannot do, can you? 
My best & tenderest love to Letitia—write me long letters, and 
believe that male & female thro’ my Diocese interest me, Adieu, 
adieu. 

“The Rev. Mr. Bruce, Finlagan N. T. Limavady, Ireland.” 


‘ Rome, 
“March, 1801. 
‘‘ DEAREST HARRY, 

« A matter occurs in which you & I are equally in- 
terested. ... A dispute upon the death of Lady Bristol is 
likely to arise between her Trustee, Sr Ch. Davers, & me relative 
to the extent of his trust. You will therefore . . . ascertain 
the exact date of the last renewal of the leases held in trust 


614 The Earl Bishop 


by Sr Chas. Davers, a man, as I know irom experience capable 
like a true Foxite to go any length to serve his purpose. 

“T both hope & believe that the date of the renewal is very an- 
cient indeed, & was signed by Sr Charles himself in England. The 
next commission is to ride over to Downhill, & there examine 
every drawer in the Green Room especially, & also in my Bed- 
chamber to find the Original deed of Trust signed by Sir Charles 
Davers & Lady Bristol & transmitted to me by Lady B. near 
20 years ago—in which he declares himself Trustee for both 
& the Survivor—of this you must instantly send me a correct 
copy. I live in hopes that you have been able to procure me 
f1000 extraordinary & have transmitted already to Goslings. 
Be sure also, when at Derry, to compare Gouldsbury’s deposits 
in Mr. Bond’s bank with Lady B.’s remittances to Gosling & 
mention the amount. 

“ Also to urge Mr. Gouldsbury to a speedy & good sale of 
the small Longfield lease to the Best bidder, but with a preference 
of Mr. Galbraith. You yourself must serve me by bidding for 
it—as Galbraith loves me but himself better. Sweet Harry 
adieu be sure to write duplicates of your answers, & the Papers 
it contains—by Two successive Posts. 

“The Reverend Mr. Bruce, Finlagan, N. T. Limavady, 
Treland.”’ 


FOC Ofte 
“g March, r8or. 


“My DEAREST HARRY, 


“I wrote you by the last post—in consequence of 
Lady B.’s death to bid you lose no time in searching all my 
drawers at the Downhill for an instrument signed by Sir Charles 
Davers & Lady B. declaring a Trust of the leases held by Sr 
Ch. during our joint lives or the longest liver. Lady B. either 
maliciously or forgetfully has in spite of this declaration of 
trust made her will & order’d these leases to be sold to the 
best bidder. 

“TI ordered you also to send me a correct copy of this deed 
of trust, and also to ride over to Derry & send me word what is 
the last renewal to Sr Charles of this lease which he holds on 

rust—lose no time I entreat you, & as the Posts are so un- 
certain, send me a duplicate of yr answer by two successive 
Posts—Adieu dear Harry. B. 

“What villains there are in this world. Fail not also to 
send me copies of Mr. Bond’s remittance & send me {1000 
extraordinary if possible.” 


The Earl Bishop 615 


“Rome, 
“2th March, r8or. 
“My EVER DEAREST HARRY, 

“T am infinitely obliged to you for yr letter of the 
21 Jan: yr active & determined conduct with Mr. Williams & 
yr very accurate statement of my probable income wch the new 
building at Ickworth makes so necessary to me. In the mean- 
time I repeat my request for a letter of attorney that I may 
sign, empowering you to pass both Mr. Bond’s accounts & Mr. 
Gouldsbury’s [the summary of which must always be received 
from Mr. G.—remitted to Gosling & this, my dear Harry, must 
be twice a year—May or Feb. I have just received the enclosed 
from Dr. Lancy.—is he ill ? is he dying or is he only a Bankrupt 
in Purse and reputation—answer me. Who is Mr. James Mont- 
gomery he recommends? What does he pay for the succession 
in case I consent—1in short is he fit to fill that station—’’ | 


Ome, 
“15 March, 1801. 

‘““My DEAREST HARRY, 

‘‘T am obliged to trouble you with the enclosed that 
you may ascertain with your usual zeal activity & celerity 
whether the charges against Pat Brown be true or Not. 

‘TI know him to be a fool, I do not believe him to be a knave. 
Above all dispatch me the letter of attorney for a successor to 
Robert McGhee in the Agency of Kilcranahan lest the last 
error be worse than the former. Lady Bristol having be- 
queathed the leases of Downhill & Kilcranahan to be sold, for- 
getting that they were held by her brother Sr. Chas. Davers 
in trust for us both & the longest liver, it behoves you to find 
in my drawer The Deed of trust signed by them both in order 
to defeat so Infamous a Legacy. B.” 

His Art treasures in Rome now being again in imminent 
peril of confiscation, this time owing to the invasion of Murat, 
the Bishop wrote to Lord Liverpool soliciting his old friend’s 
powerful support and influence with the English Govern- 
ment. As the Bishop had no better device for protecting his 
interests—and incidentally those of his country—than that 
he himself should be accredited English Plenipotentiary to 
Rome, Liverpool’s mediation would appear little likely to 
be successfully employed. Lady Elizabeth Foster’s influence 
had failed (if indeed it had ever been exerted) in this direction 
two years earlier. But ihe Bishop was undaunted. “ Now 
or never’’ was again ‘“‘the moment,” and this time he was 


616 The Earl Bishop 


to be Envoy, not to a Roman Republic, but to the new Pope 
himself! The Bishop began the following letter : 
To Charles Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool : 


“ Rome, 
“ath April, 1801. 

‘““Now or never my dearest Lord, is the moment for doing 
me and my countrymen an Act of justice against that high- 
wayman & pick-pocket, Gen. Murat, commanding the French 
army in Florence, to save finally all my immense & precious 
property in the fine arts, which the French once more seek 
to confiscate. 

“By the capitulation with Troubridge 27 Sept. 1799, 
the ninth article provides : 

“ “ oli oggetti delle belle arti appartenenti alla Rep. Francese, 
o siano le proprieta pubbliche dello Stato Romano, Saranno 
abbandonati dai Francesi.’ 

“In consequence of this article all our respective properties 
were restored to us all by Troubridge and General Naselli 
& consigned to our different Magazimes until last Thursday, 
the third of this month, the Cardinal Secretary of State sent 
us a Summons to attend him at 2 o’clock. I did so, and after 
many excuses his Eminence produced a short letter from 
Gen. Murat with a long list of various articles of mine & 
others which he required. The Secretary of State in obedience 
to the French Government immediately to put under” .. . 
(The letter is here set aside for six weeks and recommences 16 
May, 1801.) ‘‘ Thus far had I written when a most violent sudden 
unexpected & I may say unmerited fit of the gout—the most 
direful sugar-plumb of all Pandora’s box—seized my chest 
& stomach with excruciating pains and perpetual vomiting 
which terminated in a delirium, and at last a total deprivation 
of sentiment & sensation—from hence I was recalled to life 
by 5 blisters, 4 on my legs & one on my stomach, but have 
been so reduced in strength as not to be able to dwell on very 
serious subjects. I have now only to say the Sequestra- 
tion was most insolently effected, & still remains, on my 
immense & precious property to the amount of 27,000 
zecs . . . which at this moment I would not sell for 100,000 
zecs—such is their value—& all this, my Lord, under the 
sanction of a most infamous, arrogant falsehood, and in viola- 
tion of that solemn promesse précise—ninth Article of the 
Capitulation with Troubridge: ‘the French shall relinquish 
& abandon all the effects of Art ’—this General Murat, with 
French effrontery & French falsehood calls ‘ laissés en dép6ts.’ 


The Earl Bishop 617 


“I have wondered my dear Lord, considering the ex- 
tensive & important connexion we have with the Court of 
Rome on account of our Millions of R. Catholick subjects 
in Ireland—all acknowledging hitherto ‘ Imperium in Imperio ’ 
—that the King had no Plenipotentiary here—especially since 
the Pope has solemnly acknowledged the Protestant family 
on the Throne, and that all our property as well as our Persons 
here, for want of such an asylum as an Ambassador’s house 
is totally unprotected; & often wished for many reasons 
that I myself was that Representative, that so my health, 
and my duty might coincide. Bishop Robinson, if I mistake 
not, was in the very last century Plenipotentiary at Stock- 
holm, Russia and Prussia, the one on account of the Catholicks 
of Poland, the other on account of the Catholicks both of 
Poland & Silesia, who have representatives here, although the 
one Greek & the other Protestant. Perhaps your Lordship 
both could & would give me a lift on this desirable occasion, 
& your son (Lord Hawkesbury) would thus be the Patron 
both of his father-in-law & brother-in-law—for Frederick 
is most fortunately & suitably placed.* 

“As to pictures I have a Gem of Guercino’s—a Roman 
Charity, too small for my Gallery,—which I beg you to accept, 
which waits only for a Courrier for Vienna, to send you ; and 
a Iwnitoret of the first class, but I fear too large for the same 
convenience. 

‘In regard to Egypt :—Two French Officers, with leave 
of absence on account of health, and old acquaintances, 
called on me, & assured me the late Capitulation of the French 
Army was bought of the Grand Vizir for 50,000 zecchins argent 
comptant, & it was no secret in the French Army. 

“When I first recommended Egypt to the consideration 


* Frederick, Lord Hervey, was now Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, while his 
brother-in-law Hawkesbury was the Chief Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Addington’s 
Government. A letter addressed to Lord Grenville by Count Woronzoff, Russian Am- 
bassador in London, and an old friend of Lady Bristol, refers at this time in no compli- 
mentary terms to Lord Hervey, the writer expressing his fear that Lord Hawkesbury 
would appoint him to Petersburg: this, however, may perhaps be taken as a testimony 
to Hervey’s ability : 

Count Woronzoff to Lord Grenville : 

“ 1801, April 17. 

“Je crains que Lord Hawkesbury ne nomme 4a cette Place (St. Petersburg) son beau 
frére Lord Hervey que je connois beaucoup, ayent été ami intime de sa défuncte mére que 
j ai beaucoup connu en Italie il y a vingt-quatre ans, et je suisresté constamment en liaison 
avec elle. J’ai vu croitre ce fils je le connois intimement ; ila la vanité, l’esprit, la légéreté 
et le déficit de jugement caractéristique de la famille. Il est Hervey, et Archi-Hervey 
de maniére que je tremble que ce ne soi lui qu’on nomme; et si on le fait je mattens a 
mille folies de sa part ainsi qu’a mille regrets de la votre. Pour l’amour de Dieu empéchez 
une nomination aussi malheureuse. On peut le faire sans choquer les parents, en disant 
que dans les circumstances scabreuses il ne faut envoyer qu’un homme rompu dans les 
affaires.’’ (The Emperor Paul had lately been strangled.) (Hist. Comm. MSS., “‘ Drop- 
more Papers,”’ Vol, VII) 


618 The Earl Bishop 


of Mr. Dundas I specified above all things, by the advice of 
Count Cassis Pharaon at Trieste, to take the Grand Vizir, be 
he whom he may, into our pay, at any rate whatever; but 
Mr. Pitt does not think that anyone can be bribed but an 
House of Commons; or General Z., like General Alvinzi, 
would never have been left in French pay. 

“°Tis a bold word, my dear Lord, but from personal and 
intimate knowledge of a certain avaricious rapacious Grub- 
street* Sovereign, you might a year ago have secured him 
for little more than £100,000 sterling—and why not as well as 
Charles II.—according to Clarendon’s memoirs ?—Lord Carys- 
fort’s memorials are the weakest pleadings we ever read and 
all Politicians are against him—whilst all agree here that 
the Cause was as good as the Advocate Bad. 

“For what had an Elector of Hanover (George III.) in con- 
federacy with Prussia to do with England ? Could an Elector 
-of Han: compel the King of England to infringe the Laws 
& Solemn decisions of the Courts of England ? But we hope 
here that Danzick will suffer for it, and the K. of Prussia 
pay the broken pots. Ask the Ghost of Cromwell what he 
would have done—or the Ghost of Chatham. My dear Lord, 
Adieu.”’ 


“ Rome, | 
“22 May, 1801. 
“My DEAR Lorp, 

“By this day’s Courrier I send you under cover 
to Lord Minto (Sir Gilbert Elliot, created Baron Minto in 
1797, was now English Ambassador at Vienna, by which 
route the picture was sent to England), a precious gem and 
rich jewel out of the Borghese collections—for their harle- 
quin Princes, having first sold themselves to the French, 
are now selling their treasures to the English—& I doubt 
which is the greatest original of the two. This gem then 
is Rafael’s own sketch of his famous Transfiguration—so says 
the tradition of the palace—Picture-Rabbis pretend it to 
be a transcript from Rafael by Nicold Poussin. Non nostrum 
est tantas componere lites, but when so many cities contend 
for the birth of this little Homer, ’tis at least an evidence 
of his superior merit, and as such I present to your Lord- 
ship, & shall be truely happy if by such objects before your 
eyes I can bring from time to time to your recollection a 
person who has long & long ago admired your superior talents 


* Grub Street Sovereign : Frederick William III. of Prussia, whose late father had 
completely depleted the royal coffers. 


The Earl Bishop 619 


and respected and unblemished integrity—inheritances you 
have so happily transmitted to your invaluable & undegenerate 
son—the darling husband of my darling daughter. 

‘ And now for Politicks and for God’s sake, & for mammon’s 
sake, let no consideration whatever permit such treasure— 
such an El Dorado—to slip through your fingers—’tis worth 
a Trojan ten years’ war—a revenue of eleven millions and 
an half at least & its commercial privileges & prerogatives— 
& then the bridle it holds in the mouth of the Turk—& the 
communication with the East—& its superiority of the West 
—with its sugars, its coffees—Abyssinia too between the 
Cape & .... what millions of wealthy travellers when they 
can travel safely to the Pyramids, to the Labyrinth to Thebes 
with its hundred gates, monuments of sculpture & architecture 
that dwindle down Rome & Greece to mere dwarfs & pigmies. 
But for God’s sake do not spare your gold, nor grudge your 
fees to Bashas & Grand Vizirs—if you do you will lose your 
cause & the French will gain. 

‘“ Peace—Cardinal Rufo-Ghisturi—Rametti—all the best 
heads here agree with me—no treaty, no negotiations with 
the Consul (Napoléon). He will out-lie & out-wit you all. 
Ut possidetis, that is I keep & you keep all we have got, 
I do not think we shall lose by the bargain—but before you 
sign make yourselves masters of Guadeloupe that deep eternal 
blot on Ld. Spencer’s Admiralty Board. Adieu my dear 
Lord—& give up anything but Egypt.” 


Wazi May ison. 

“General Murat that arch-plunderer has this day written 
to the Pope himself for leave to quarter a whole battalion 
of 3200 men upon Viterbo, upon the pretext or the assurance 
that Luscany—all the kingdom of Tuscany—has not the where- 
withal to feed them. Thus they have eat up literally Terni 
& all Rieti, till nothing is left for the most opulent inhabitants. 
My friend & Landlady the Countess Canale of Terni assures 
me that General Mounier upon arriving at Terni, alighted 
at her house, bespoke instantly a dinner for 40 persons and as 
much for supper and that for as many days as he should remain, 
which was until nothing was left either to eat or to drink: 
but they are so hated by the country and so dissatisfied among 
themselves that an able or an active agent with a suitable 
purse either at Leghorn, Florence, Rome or Naples, could 
produce a perfect dissolution of their army—such is its in- 
discipline, its discontent & its state of revolt & insurgency— 
but alas! there is nobody ; Whilst I lay ill of the Jaundice 


620 The Earl Bishop 


40 days successively between Ferrara & Bologna, the wheal 
Garrison of Mantua revolted for want of pay, & pointed the 
cannon against their Officers. I saw during my abode in 
Milan the very same demibrigades whose subalterns assured 
me that the garrison had more than once solemnly proposed 
to massacre their Officers, pillage the Jews in Mantua, & 
march into France, & that had any person in authority for 
the House of Austria paid the troops they would have put 
Mantua into his hands. But alas! Thurgut knew nothing, 
did nothing, & cared for nothing: his apathy joined to the 
excessive corruption of general officers, such as Alvini, Provera 
& lastly Zach, brother to that avowed Jacobin Astronomer 
at Gotha (where the whole Court is Jacobin) has saved France 
&, as yet, ruined Austria & Italy.” 
(Addressed to the Earl of Liverpool, at Lord Hawkesbury’s 
Office.) 


iq OCS 
“8th June, r8or. 


“This day & not before, my dear Lord, that real gem of 
the sketch of Rafael’s Transfiguration sets out for Vienna— 
may it please your Lordship as much as it does me & all the 
Roman & British Connoisseurs. Some Heretics christen it a 
draft of Nicol6 Poussin. But the tradition of the Borghem 
Palace uniformly ascribes it to Rafael himself. 

“In regard to Isola @ Elba. 

“T cannot help again & again recommending the purchase 
of this Island whose produce especially in the hands of the 
English with a good shrewd Scotch Governor to direct opera- 
tions of draining the marshes, working the salt & Iron mines 
would by the very best accounts produce an interest of 25 to 
30 per cent.—Add to this its vicinity to the Continent from 
whence in a very few hours the Garrison can be supplied with 
fresh provisions, & the large quantity of cattle which can be 
fed on the Island itself when the fens or marshes are drained. 
Then this last attack by the French shows how impregnable 
the fortress is ; and recollect, my lord, that the Iron is of the 
very best quality, & its mines being leased out to the Carron 
Company the revenue to Government may be clear of all risk 
and incumbrance & no further dependence on that voluble 
animal Sweden. 

“Last night that poor drivelling idiot Cardinal Gonsalvi 
set out for Paris as a Common Courier to deprecate the wrath 
of that old hardened sinner Buonaparte who will soothe & 
laugh at him, promise & forget him. The Joy of Rome from 


The Earl Bishop 621 


Alpha exclusively to Omega passes all description, upon the 


universal belief that a younger son of Spain is to be soon ap- 


pointed Sovereign of this little State, & the Pontiff with an 
adequate income remain Bishop of Rome & head of its Church. 

“This new revolution is the publick topick of conversation 
in every company great & small, high & low, lay & ecclesiastical 
—& the effusions of joy, infinitely humiliating to this sacerdotal 
government full as much hated as despised, & despised as feared. 

“Cacault also has left Rome without taking leave, but the 
Insolence & preponderance of the French Individuals here is 
humiliating to excess, both to Governors and governed. 

“The Hereditary Prince of Parma, successor to Porsenna 
King of Etruria, will find but a skeleton on his arrival: the 
French dogs have picked the very bones of this Lion of Etruria 
if ever a Lion it was. 

“ But to return to the . . .(?) in which your Lordship will 
find two other precious gems :—the small but invaluable Paul 
Veronese is for Ld. Hawkesbury & the beautiful Claude Lorrain 
for the elegant, quiet mind of Lady Hawkesbury—Here one 
picks up such jewels like AXsops .. . in his fable, ‘dum .. .’ 
& I hope e’er long to forward yr Lordship a small Capo d’Opera 
of Guercino in his very best manner, which I hope will be a 
morsel to stay your stomach for some time, till when I remain 
with equal esteem & affection your Lordship’s most devoted B. 

“T hope our State-Palinurus will soon resume the helm 
‘Ride on the whirlwind & direct the storm ’—For God’s sake 
my dear Lord, & for Friendship’s sake admit my Frederick 
as the Roman senators of old did young Patricians of parts, 
talents, & hopes, to your instructive symposium.” 


The two next letters, addressed to “‘ Rev. Mr. Bruce, Finlagan, 


N. T. Limavady,” return to Irish affairs : 


“ Rome, 
“oth June, 1807. 


‘Never my dearest Harry was a more satisfactory Agent 
or a more correct Agent. As to my Coach, if the wheels be sold 
I defy all the Boards in Dublin to make my coach pay The Wheel 
Tax, & this should have been done by Mr. Gage ten years ago 
—but poor Gage sips whisky, gets his wife with Child, & never 
thinks. Brown: Pat Brown is a very honest but a very 
expensive, Ignorant, & presumptuous agent—hold a tight hand 
on him, dear H. 

“‘ Leases. Be so good as to send me copies of all those 
letters of Lady Bristol’s which relate to these leases as Sr 


VOL, I. 50) 


622 The Earl Bishop 
Ch. Davers will certainly attempt to set aside The Deed of 


trust by any means just or unjust whatever—he is capable of © 
anything even Perjury—where money is concerned, as we once © 
experienced in a Parish Vestry where he obliged his tenant 


to forswear himself. I never can or shall forget it... . To- 


33 


morrow or next day I go to certain Baths near here. . . 


““ Naples, 
C T7th Jae; ee 


‘““Hail wind storm & ram here is the letter of Attorney 


my ever dearest Harry & high time it is to use it—but are © 


my clergy mad & do gray hairs only bring on more expert- © 


ness in fallacy & fraudulency—Soden I remember was arreared 
up to nine hundred pounds—but as Doctor Tom Torrens said : 
‘One may trust Soden with anything but one’s purse & one’s 
bottle.’ McGhee in his last letter now before me confesses 
(as I wrote you) having upon an urgency appropriated to his 


own use {200 Sterling which no one wd lend him & which — 
he was obliged to pay—I suppose for his scoundrel vagabond ~ 


SORT Milky 
“As to Mr. Gage’s agency I have long ago offered it to his 
poor destitute Widow in order to help her to live, she warmly 
recommends one who will assist in collecting the Rents—but 
Nota Bene if you my dear Harry do not deem him adequate, 
I will adopt yr favorite Mr. John Torrens of Glenone but the 
Widow has my wishes. The Declaration of Trust is ample & 
explicit—but send me copies of Lady B.’s letters on that subject 
—as Sr Charles Davers, one of the shrewdest Jockies in New- 
market, alleges she was compelled by me to sign this Trust— 
but who compelled him the Trustee ? 

“B.Scullion. Pat Brown improves in his management of 
it.—need I recommend to you to make the Demesne as pro- 
ductive as possible. All the excavations of the Canal mixed 
with hot lime will make it a mine of Gold.—If you mean it for 
Rye, grass & Hay, the Clay must predominate in the Compost. 
If you prefer Pasture and Sheep then the lime must greatly 
predominate over the Clay, & white clover will come up of 
itself. Adieu dearest Harry & Letitia. My last Gout has 
cleansed the Augean Stable of my Bowels, & I am younger & 
stouter & more florid than ever, & ride 35 & 40 miles a day.” 

The Bishop passed July and August at Castellamare, the 
favourite summer resort of Neapolitans, and there it was his 
habit to bathe in the sea. He wrote as follows to Lord 
Liverpool : 


The Earl Bishop 623 


“ Castel a Mare, 
“ and Sept., 1801. 


‘“‘Tf it be true my dear Lord that Lord St. Helens,* formed 
to please all maids & gain all hearts, leaves Petersburg on 
account of its climate, why not send him to that most important 
of all stations Vienna, where I venture to prophecy to you 
that the insolence, the ignorance, & the presumption the sullen- 
ness & sulkiness of the present Herald (presumably Lord Minto, 
Ambassador at Vienna) ‘vous fera des mauvais affaires.’ I 
watched him close both at Munich & at Naples. In six days 
he contrived to disgust and revolt everyone he saw, & almost 
everyone he did not see. 

“I gave him a dinner one day at Naples, as I had formerly 
known his tremendous father—him who knocked from his 
box his own Coachman because he did not precede other Coaches. 

“This legitimate son of his came after all other guests & 
went away before them, & during dinner literally never spoke 
to any but his Banker whom he himself placed beside him— 
so that he certainly lost the vote of the whole company & had 
not one single wish (trick word) for him in three hours— 
with his frowns & sneers he completely disgusted every being 
at table except myself—who only pitied him or still more those 
who for a pityful Borough interest had sent him to unweave 
all the web which Nelson, the modest amiable Nelson had wove 
— tis difficult to say which hated him most ‘Acton or his 
Master.’ (The King of Naples.) 

‘“‘Long before this I hope your Lordship has received and 
approved the beautiful little sketch of Rafael I sent you by 
Hunter the messenger. The Connoisseurs differ about the 
Author whether Rafael or Poussin but one decisive circumstance 
seems to determine its origin—Not Poussin’s cloth, & it is 
Rafael’s. 

“Tn regard to the Island of Elba—If as I most sanguinely 
hope, we are to keep this Island so essential to our interest, both 
from its produce, its Ports, & its contiguity to the Continent— 
instantly I entreat my Lord,—but instantly—let its Marshes 
be drained not merely to ameliorate the Air, but to enable the 
Governor to maintain Cattle enough to supply the small garrison 
that is necessary . . . both the salt works & the Iron Mines are 
ill-worked & much underlet. I should advise letting the Iron 
works to the Carron Company who can afford to give a better 
price for them than any other tenant whatever. . . 


* Fitzherbert, Lord St. Helens, English Ambassador at Petersburg, had formerly wished 
to marry the Bishop’s daughter, Lady Louisa Hervey, now Lady Hawkesbury. 


VOL. Ii. 19* 


624. The Earl Bishop 


‘In regard to Prussia. If this mean niggardly, avaricious 
rapacious Sovereign continues to play tricks! why not burn 
his Dantzick for Him, & then peep into Embden—A good fee 
given to himself in time would have stopped all this. I knew 
him intimately when Crown Prince at Pyrmont. Gold was his 
God—he swears by no other &, except Lucchesini, he has not 
a man of sense about him. Hangwitz est un homme et plus 
Anglais qu’il n’ose se montrer—Adieu, | hope this may reach 
you soon & safe.” 


Next in sequence comes a letter addressed to his bankers 
at Paris, relating to pictures sent by him to his daughter, Lady 
Hawkesbury. 


“Rome, 
“ce 5 Novembre, r8or. 


“Le C. de Bristol, évéque de Derry prie Monsr. Peregeaux 
d’avoir la bonté de procurer un ordre que le tableau route pour Sa 
fille Miladi Hawkesbury, femme du Sécrétaire d’Etat ne soit pas 
dérouté par la Douane a Calais dont les negligences ont déja 
ruiné un superbe Salvador Rosa, envoyé il y a quelques mois 
a Lady Hawkesbury. Le Docteur Marshall porteur de cette 
lettre porte aussi le dit Tableau.” (Original belonging to Rev. 
Sydenham Hervey.) 


The two following are also addressed to Monsr. Peregeaux 
at Paris. Both contain interesting references to his “ affairs ”’ 
with Buonaparte : 


“A Rome, 
““cé 4 Fevrier, 1802. 


“Voiez Monsieur la lettre que vous me demandez pour 
mon ami et Banquier Louis Harris de Frankfort, et voiez encore 
une lettre pour mon fils, que vous aurez la bonté de lui acheminer 
en cas qu’il ne soit pas encore arrivé a Paris pour mon affaire 
avec le Premier Consul—agréez mes Respects—mes Homages et 
mes Excuses. 


“Le C. pE BristoL EVEQUE DE DERRY. 


“En cas que le Courrier de Monsr. Cacault voudrait se 
charger des différens numeros de la decade Egyptienne, je 
vous serai infiniment obligé si vous auriez la bonté de me 
Vacheminer—aussi bien que la Vie de Pie Sixte.”’ 


The Earl Bishop 625 


“Rome, 
“12 Mars, 1802. 


‘Str, I have this day drawn on you at Usance twenty-five 
Louis d’Or in favor of Giuseppe Faiella which I beg you to 
pay and account with Mr. Gosling for the same. BRIsToL. By 
return of Post I beg to know how Lord Hervey has succeeded 
with B’parte. B.” 


Whether Lord Hervey, in his capacity of Under-Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs, actually attempted to mediate with Buona- 
parte on behalf of his father does not appear. The moment 
may have seemed propitious, for his chief, Lord Hawkesbury, 
had been instrumental in effecting the short-lived Peace of 
_ Amiens much belauded in England, which proved but a delusion 
and a snare. The moment was, however, in fact most unpro- 
pitious; Buonaparte’s insolence to the English Ambassador, 
Lord Whitworth, at this juncture is well known. 


CHAPTER DALY. 
18or-1802 


EANWHILE the Bishop’s affairs in Ireland unremittingly 
i occupied his attention in the minutest detail, as a sheaf 
of letters to Harry Bruce attests : 


‘““ Naples, 
“ roth Sept., 1607. 
“You have acted like yourself & like my friend—dear 
Harry in the affair of MacWilliams & the housemaid—nor could 
you do better.—But here my dearest Harry is an affair which 
more concerns you. 


“Dr. Richardson, unable to renew his lease, wants to sell © 


it but is on the worst terms with his Tenants & with his Land- 
lord. If I can purchase the lease in another name I mean to 
join it with others I have left to you—it will behove you there- 
fore to go over yourself to Omagh or N. T. Stewart, and care- 
fully examine the tenants, their Leases, their Lands & the Rent 
they can fairly afford to give. Then inform how far Donagh- 
kiddy lease under me is expired, & of course how many years 


remain, then consult with Mr. Gouldsburg what that remnant 


may be worth—but for God’s sake do not commit—or pledge— 
either me or yourself, as you did most youthfully and un- 
advisedly in the Langfield lease. 

‘The Doctor has raised the Rents most preposterously—& 
it would be a folly to purchase at such advanced Rent—yet 
I should be sorry you should lose so fine a lease & so good an 
income. Adieu.” 


DTOnie, 
“ 20th Nov., 1801. 
“You have done as usual my dearest, completely well in 
every article of your letter, & must now consider how precarious 
Life is, & by means of Mr. McGhee & his tithe farmer endeavour 
626 


The Earl Bishop 627 


to save the remainder of his debt,—but how mortifying is it 
not to a feeling mind to find a man at his time of life & of his 
outward appearance & under so many so great & so essential 
obligations, swindling his friend, his Bishop & his benefactor 
Peace to all such—whilst one such friend over pays all the 
Tricks & swindlings of a gang of McGhees. Keep an eye & an 
Hand too over James Galbraith. Tempora Mutantur et nos 
mutamur—ab illis—in Avarice. ‘Increase of appetite grows 
by what it feeds on,’ and ’tis in the Moral Dropsy as in the 
Physical ‘ Quo plus sunt pote, plus sitiuntur Aque.’ 

“Cappan Lease. My reason for wishing it, is for your 
sake; keep Doctor R. at Bay & make him feel & sce that if I 
do not renew to him neither to his purchaser.(?) It is within 
a few years of expiring—’tis an agonising lease—& [ am no 
agonizing Bishop—all I fear is Damp—it he has offered the 
lease to you, buy them at his bids. 1st how many years to 
come, 2nd. What Rent does it stand? .. . 

“The Union has raised the price of Lands considerably— 
avail yourself of it, & Grant the new leases accordingly —& so 
adieu sweet Harry with my tenderest love to yr Letitia. 

“ Dictures & Statue. “Ask the Collector of Derry, & Him 
of Coleraine whether he will allow me, as Sr. Hugh Hill did, to 
import my Pictures as Canvass & my Statue as Marble.”’ 

Addressed: ‘The Rev. Mr. Bruce, Finlaggan, N.T. Lima- 
vady, Ireland.” 


“ Rome, 
“sth Jan., 1802. 
“My DEAREST HARRY, 

“The knavery & perjury of one Panton at Leghorn 
having laid a Sequester on my £4,500 wch another scoundrel 
had swindled from me—I must request you immediately to 
search all my Papers for every letter note & account of Thomas 
Panton, & to send me correct copies on large Royal Paper sworn 
to before a Notary publick as the nature of my suit & the Laws 
of this Country demand. BRISTOL.” 


‘““ Rome, 
“12th Jan., 1802. 
“My DEAREST HARRY, 

“T entreat you to see Galbraith: Deliver to him 
the enclosed, ’tis to borrow {1,000 of him until this day twelve- 
month to relieve me from the embarrassment into which Mr. 
Bond’s (banker) over zeal has thrown me by omitting to remit 
the {5,600 in time. Perhaps you yourself could lend me {£1,000 


628 The Earl Bishop 


for a year or two & receive six per cent. which wd greatly - 
accommodate me at this place. If so remit it instantly to 
Gosling, that he may not protest any more of my drafts. i 

“Above all dear Harry see that Mr. Gouldsburg pays every ~ 
sixpence he can collect—twice a year—& that twice a year ~ 
Mr. Bond remits all he can to Mr. Gosling—fail not I entreat — 
RE MS ae 


‘“ Rome, 

‘-eheb. ooze 
‘“ DEAREST HARRY, | 
“Here is Mr. Galbraith’s letter to whom I beg you ~ 
would make my best excuses for not answering him directly © 
but thro’ you on account of the innumerable letters I have to 
answer by this very post. That I am much obliged to him for ~ 
his attention & most readily concurring with his Idea of ap- | 

pointing Mr. Gouldsburg trustee of all the Leaseholds of which 

Sr, Ch. Davers was trustee. ...”’ 

Galbraith’s letter, December 28, 1801 : 


‘My DEAR LorRD, 

“Tam just returned from Mr. Bruce’s where we were 
consulting about the propriety of renewing to Sr. Chas. Davers 
the leases made to him in Trust. I received today a Declara- 
tion of that Trust than wch nothing can be more clear or free 
of doubt. As the earlier Trust is no more, (on Lady Bristol’s 
death) ithe [rust isiatan end, 7 on/p 


“ Rome, 
“26-Feb., 16020 


... Leases. Until Mr. Gouldsburg is made the trustee 
instead of Sr. Ch. Davers, the leases must be renewed in the 
name of Sr. Ch. Davers—but Mr. Gouldsburg once made the 
Trustee we are totally clear of Sr. Ch. Davers. . . .”’ 


ce 


‘Rome, 
“ rath: June pieces 


‘“ Lovell, my dearest Harry, was himself the person who 
communicated to me Dr. Richardson’s wish of selling to him in 
preference to any one else, but £500 a year out of yr pocket & 
mine is not to be thrown away, and I trust that before the end 
of the year either by Hook or by Crook—that is either by 
Lovell’s Hook or my Crook—we shall be able to effect it. 
(Lovell was now Archdeacon of Derry.) 

““ R. McGhee (Clergyman). Here is his second letter & I 


The Earl Bishop 629 


agree with you that the sooner we can get rid of so Ingrained & 
thorough-paced Sinner the better—Add to this, his successor 
is an older man than He, & whether Desertmartin vacates or 
Maghera my first object is that vertuous Pious son Oliver 
McCausland, for whose filial conduct I have ever had the great 
respect & the warmest desire to reward. 

“That scoundrel Henry my groom who quitted my service 
so abruptly left a poor girl with child by him & fled the 
country to escape the Penalty, & so adieu dearest Harry.” 


‘* Naples, 
oT ATEN TES i Lee 

‘Lady B.’s Leases. I acted only by Galbraith’s opinion, 
which I must confess ever appeared to me problematical, & 
I now advise you to take on the subject the best opinion possible 
—_for Sr. Charles is to my knowledge a thorough paced adept 
in Ch. Fox’s morality & politicks—the letters arrived late & set 
out soon & adieu dear Harry not forgetting Letitia. 

‘““P.S.—Be so good as to desire Mr. Bond to remit all my 
Rents—fines &c. not to Gosling, who is much too incorrect for 
me, but to Coutts & Co. London. 

“TI cannot make Gosling’s receipts correspond with Mr. 
Bond’s remittances.”’ 


“Next day. Castel a Mare, 
| ‘I 5 Aug) 2802: 

“My DEAREST HARRY, 

“At any rate you must avoid sending me Henry 
Pillin, or indeed any other messenger who will most certainly 
miss of me, as my Physicians after a very serious fall from my 
horse have order’d me immediately to certain Baths in Hungary, 
above 500 miles out of the road from Naples to London. I 
wd have you therefore go over in person to the Plaintiff against 
me in Donaghkiddy & at any rate whatever make up the matter 
with him. 

“As to Messengers being required by Chancery to be sent 
only to see me sign my name, when by the Laws both of 
Britain & of every kingdom in Europe the certificate of the 
first Magistrate of the Town where the person signing resides 
is ever deemed sufficient evidence—I advise you to take 
Lawyer’s opinion on this strange point of Chancery thro’ some 
other channel than James Galbraith—a very blood sucker. 

“ After all, if you cannot by any means whatever persuade 
the Plaintiff at Donaghkiddy to make it up amicably I have 
sent the Duplicate of this Paper to Mr. Gouldsburg to make 


= 


630 The Earl Bishop | 
the Declaration of Trust in your favor instead of mine—in 
consequence of which you will receive the Rent, as if you were 
the Proprietor. 

“As to the affairs of Sr. Ch. Davers, you must expect orm 
him every possible infamous low-lived Biackguard trick that a 
Horse-jockey like him has been accustomed to practise for 30 
years past. But as your friend Mr. Holford seems to be a 
Gentleman you must offer him authentick copies of all Lady 
B.’s letters to me on the subject, by which he could see how 
freely she herself consented to the second Deed of Trust— 
after she had received her Dower upon my English Estate— 
at any rate I will face that surly Scoundrel to the last. Mr. 
Gouldsburg’s last year’s remittances to Mr. Bond are enormous, 
but, dear Harry, I could wish as I have often expressed, that 
for my complete satisfaction both his accounts and Mr. Bond’s 
were signed by so punctual & accurate a friend as you. Henry 
Pillin has demanded of you for his journey very near the double 
of what the Royal Academy pays to every Painter, Sculptor 
& Architect whom they send to study in Rome. The expense 
of the journey from London to Rome is only £30, and as much 
back again at the end of three years, which makes {60 in all & 
not £100—but he is a great pickpocket as I know by experience 
—& so adieu dear Harry & away to Donaghkiddy as soon as 
you have read this, for depend upon it there is villainy at the 
Bottom, wch upon the spot you will smell out.” 

ihe ‘Bishop’ s fall from his horse, not an unusual event if 
Countess d’Albany is to be believed, was, it may be surmised, 
not of a serious character, and did not in fact necessitate a 
cure five hundred miles away such as was recommended by an 
obliging physician when the Bishop was in need of an excuse. 

It is clear that in the intervals between the serious illnesses 
which attacked him suddenly from time to time the Bishop 
remained in the enjoyment of health and vitality ; while the 
appreciation of the sheer joy of living which this septuagenarian 
retained in his later days, his keen pleasure in wholesome 
exercise, beautiful scenery, and the more material satisfaction 
of Italian coffee, eggs warm from the nest, mealy potatoes and 
a bottle of wine shared with a friend, is apparent from a letter 
to Lord Liverpool in which he vividly depicts his surroundings 
at Castellamare at this time. His manner of life was, indeed, 
in strong contrast to that of his invalid correspondent who was 
the victim of a creeping paralysis : 


“C. a Mare, 12 Aug., 1802. (Add. MSS., 38473, f. 108 (supple- 
ment to papers of Charles Jenkinson, First Earl of Liverpool).) 


The Earl Bishop 631 


““MyY DEAR LORD, 


“T am truely sorry to find that the E. of Liverpool is 
still paying the sins of the Literary excesses of Mr. Jenkinson, 
but I still maintain my sentiments that a Pilgrimage of five 
months to the balmy atmosphere of Montpelier, Marseilles, 
Hiéres, & above all Toulon, where I myself 30 years ago spent 
six months, so far from obstructing any one of yr L.’s projects 
relative either to yr son or yr daughter, to your Publick or yr 
private affairs, wd by giving health to yr body & energy to your 
mind greatly assist your operations. My dear Lord you have 
lived long enough both in the Political & natural world to have 
learnt ‘qu'il faut reculer pour mieux sauter’ & if you do not 
take time by the forelock she may too soon take you by the 
Hinder Lock, the more you have labored in your youth the less 
care & thought ought you to take in your decline. 

“Believe me my dear Lord, a few months of next winter at 
Marseilles & Montpelier & the balmy air of these regions will 
restore an elasticity & energy to yr mind & body of which those 
only are sensible who have tried them. The place where I 
now reside & where I passed last year’s summer with a satis- 
faction & a benefit that converted my autumn into a summer, 
seems to be the hospital of the whole kingdom of Naples on 
account of the bathing, & certain acidulous water deemed specific 
in all cases of obstructions, in which Naples & its vicinity abounds 
on account of the sulphurous atmosphere that extends for many 
& many miles round about Vesuvius, and renders suppers almost 
as dangerous & indigestible as at Kome itseli—that hollow 
Crater of an extinct volcano. Above 300 persons of every 
rank, & from almost every part of the kingdom, pass the summer 
here in the recovery of their health, & it is curious to observe 
the moral consequences arising from the removal of ventricular 
obstructions. Man woman & child seems to be regenerated 
by these ablutions & those who arrived pale languid & despond- 
ing return laughing singing and dancing. But the most curious 
scenery here is that of the universal industry of the inhabitants 
from the age of seven to at least seventy & more. 200 Women 
and children (for scarce a man is to be seen among them they 
are all employed in ploughing the land or ploughing the sea) 
have the daily occupation of carrying well-balanced on their 
heads Poles of 20 feet long to the amount of 150 Ib. weight 
according to their strength from a wood 4 miles distant at least 
to the waterside where they are daily embarked for Naples, 
& for this they do not earn above five pence English per diem 
—so that when they return unloaded they are constantly 


632 The Earl Bishop 


spinning Flax Cotton & Hemp: & observe that such is the 
activity & industry of the inhabitants that although the Culture 
of the Cotton be only of five years, that they all grow much more 
than they consume & of course export much. But the life we 
had here is too singular not to be related—Every being rises 
before the Sun, & away he marches with his desponding head 
& his staggering legs to drench his bowels with these acidulous 
waters. I take my dip in the balmy invigorating Sea-water— 
then to my usual breakfast of delicious coffee blunted of all its 
irritating particles by the yellow of an egg instead of cream 
& with 2 fresh eggs warm from the nest to prey on instead of 
the coats of my stomach. Then after helping ‘ Hyperion to 
his Horse’ I mount my horse & climb these beautiful mountains 
shaded by the broad leaved Chesnut tree for 3 hours regularly 
& then Home to a second breakfast copious as the first—yet 
such is the balmy aromatick salubrious quality of the atmosphere 
arising from various aromatick plants that it scarce supports 
the stomach until one o’clock—when all Castel a Mare rich & 
poor old & young native & foreigner sit down to dinner & to 
guess by the rest of my guests eat most voraciously in conse- 
quence of the vast space which the acidulated waters have left 
in Bowels & stomach—then succeeds a tribute to the warmth 
of the climate—a long sleep of at least 3 hours—then fresh 
exercise according to our various faculties. Frew sup—TI cannot 
fast till the morn—so a bottle of genuine Legitimate port wine 
with a few Potatos, at least as good & as mealy as your own 
Dutchy of Lancaster produces, supports my friend & me till 
the hour of Ten, when all Castel a Mare forget their cares, 
- diseases or medicine—& so da capo, my Lord, for at least 4 
months together. 

“Such a life is worth at least a debate in either H. of Par- 
liament, & its pleasures surpass even that of a Majority. I shd 
be happy to receive you at Ickworth when it is finished, but 
before that, my dear Lord Hervey wd supply my Place & make 
you as welcome as I myself could, who am ever your affectionate 
Servant BRISTOL.”’ 

Addressed to “‘ The Earl of Liverpool,’ (and in another 
handwriting) ‘“ Addiscomb Place, Croydon, Surrey.”’ 


ee ee 







ee Z 


The Bishop was on extremely intimate terms with various 
Italians who probably preyed on his generosity while flattering 
his foibles. To such Lord Nelson alludes in a letter to Lady 
Hamilton as ‘‘ those devils of Italians about him.’ A certain 
lawyer, Colini, of Florence, was perhaps of this category. He 
was employed by the Bishop in his claim against Panton of 


The Earl Bishop 633 


Leghorn. Two jocose letters* addressed to him by the Bishop 
have survived. They relate to the occupation of the Bishop’s 
villa at Florence, ‘“‘ Il] Boschetto,”’ during his absence at Castella- 
mare and Naples—the Villa in the Via Strozzi concerning which 
Countess d’Albany two years before had reported that the 
Bishop had taken it on a five years’ lease, and had added a 
story to it. Colini now asking to live in the Villa, the Bishop 
replies in a letter written at Castellamare, July 7, 1802, in 
which he addresses Colini as his ‘‘ most esteemed Cicerone,’’ 
and cordially grants his request, while Mrs. Wyndham, “unless 
she has actually entered into possession of ‘Il Boschetto,’ is 
to be prevented from doing so; since,’ adds the Bishop, “ I 
had never thought for a moment of letting it to anyone; if 
the abode is agreeable to Thee—mearum Grande Decus colu- 
menque Rerum.” 


‘“ Naples, 
‘13 Novembre, 1802. 


“Mon CHER ORATEUR, c’est a dire dans le language céleste 
—Poéte. ...dans celui des Hommes, Menteur,—avocat— 
Orateur—Poéte Menteur—vid: Synonymes frangaises. Con- 
naissez-vous le Proverbe Anglais ‘The Pot calls the kettle 
black’? vous m’accusez d’un silence de 3 semaines, et moi 
vous de 4. 

“Je suis a la joye de mon coeur que vous vous trouvez 
si bien al Boschetto—Mais il faut absolument que vous vous 
arrangiez avec Madame Fabroni pour qu’elle et sa famille puisse 
Yoccuper tout le mois d’Octobre au moin—fourrez-vous donc 
dans quelque coin—mais cédez le Grand Appartement a ma 
chére Aspasie—moi qui vous a gaiement cédé mon Intérét, 
je ne puis vous céder la Santé de mon amie—l’amie de mon 


* In the possession of the Rev. S. H. A. Hervey : 
““ Castel a Mare, 

‘“ 7 Luglio, 1802. 

‘‘ Pregiatissimo mio Cicerone. Prima di questo momento non ho mai veduta la vostra 
lettera del 15 giugno scritta a Giunti, né prima di questo momento ho mai sentito che 
voi Bramaste il mio Tusculan, che sarei stato troppo felice d ’una occasione di testificarvi 
la mia piena amicizia—se dunque mad : Wyndham non sia gia in possessione del Boschetto, 
fate leggere e capire al Banchiere Meggit, che Io voglio assolutamente che il Boschetto resti 
in mani Vostre, che me I’ avete salvata delle mani dei Goti moderni—Tu ne vestisti— 
Queste misere carne— Tu la spoglia—giacché nou avrei pensato per un momento ad affit- 
tarlo a Chiunque—se !’ Abitazione conveniva a Te—mearum Grande Decus columenque 
Rerum.—BRIsTOL. 

‘‘ sia per l’anno venturo in ogni caso, ne siete sicuro, ed anche perl’ inverno.” Ad- 
dressed ‘‘ Mons. 1’ Avocat Colini, Florence.”’ 

In a second letter addressed to ‘‘ Mons. |’ avocat Colini,”’ the name of aMadame Fabroni 
appears, coupled with exaggerated terms of devotion such as the Bishop habitually lavished 
on his female friends. This favoured lady (was she, too, one of ‘‘ these devils of Italians ’’ ?) 
is to be permitted to occupy with her family the suite on the first floor of Il] Boschetto, 
while the ‘‘ Cher Orateur ”’ (a designation which bore some equivocal synonymes in the 
Bishop’s dictionary) is to withdraw to a corner of the house. 


& Na 


634 The Earl Bishop 
Ame et de mon Coeur. Arrangez-vous donc avec Elle—d’autant 
plus que je compte moi méme l’occuper avant Novembre au 
moins pour quelques semaines. J’attens tous les jours et a 
chaque courier des papiers intéressans sur l’affaire de Panton 
et si je ne vous écris point la dessus c’est que je compte encore 
plus sur votre amitié que méme sur vos talens. Tout ce que 
je scais de Bolla c’est que le feu Roi de Prusse me donna des 
lettres pour lui comme a Son Agent, et que Mad: La Comtesse 
de Lichtenau sa Sultana favorite lui consigna a Livorne tous 
ses Immenses effets. Adieu. Valeas, et me ames ut soles. 
Mons. L’avocat Colini, Florence’ (unsigned). : 


The Downhill correspondence contains reference to a dispute 
at this time about the spire of Derry Cathedral which the Bishop 
had presented many years before—it is said that he put a spire 
on every church in his diocese. The Cathedral spire was now 
on the verge of collapsing—whether from some structural defect, 
or from the systematic neglect of the Dean in order to spite the 
Bishop, as the Bishop himself declares. 

“Tf Mr. Gandom be as honest a man as he is an able one,” 
writes the Bishop (Rome, November 17, 1802), ‘he must know 
that the only danger to the Steeple must appear from the fissures 
or gaps being wider. That to remedy this an Iron Cramp 
passed from One wall to the other is a most certain security 
against the two walls swerving. That this method is uni- 
versally practised on all public buildings on the Continent with 
the greatest success—that many years ago Mr. Shanahan 
apprized the Dean & Mayor of the necessity to glaze the openings 
in the steeple which has ever been most intentionally neglected 
from the hatred the Dean bears me.”’ 

Again : 

‘“ Rome, 
‘““ 23rd December, 1802. 


‘“ Nothing can surpass the stupidity, obstinacy, & malignity 
of the Dean’s adherents. Shanahan’s arguments are irre- 
fragable, and added to them One or Two Iron cramps passed 
from Wall to wall would form a perfect impossibility of separat- 
ing—but Qui Vult decipi decipiatur. As I am not among those, 
I avail myself of Mr. Bond’s correctness to elucidate Mr. Gos- 
ling’s incorrectness.”’ 


The following portion of a letter was written by the Bishop, 
the beginning of the last year of his life. It is addressed to 
“Miss Selina Burroughs, Bury, Suffolk.” (Among the papers 
that were at Hardwick House, Bury St. Edmunds.) The 


The Earl Bishop 635 


orphan daughter of the Archdeacon Newburgh Burroughs 
of Derry and Mrs. Burroughs, Selina Burroughs was growing 
to womanhood, and lived under the care of her uncle and aunt 
Sandys. The Bishop paid £30 half yearly for the rent of the 
Rev. Joseph Sandys’s house at Bury. (Ickworth Estate Book, 
1800, Jan.) 

The Bishop wrote : 

“Rome, 
“ ath Jan. 1803. 

“You may rely on it, sweet Selina, that as soon as I have 
read a letter of yours before I read any other to distract my 
attention or abate of my energy I take the Pen to answer, 
but so indeed I do by every other correspondent whatever, & 
have often by one single Post 20 letters suing to be answered, 
& I find no more expeditious manner than this of complying 
wth their wishes.—if my answers miscarry ‘tis no fault of mine, 
but my health, spirits, looks & energy are all you could wish 
them. Make Mr. Sandys specify thro’ you how much more 
money to finish ye house’’ (Ickworth) (rest missing). (It was 
part of Joseph Sandys’s duties to superintend the two Italians, 
Messrs. Carabelli, who executed the sculpture that runs round 
the dome at Ickworth. They received £26 5s. as their month’s 
wages, etc.) (Ickworth Estate Book.) 

Harry Bruce had by this time taken legal opinion about 
getting rid of Sir Charles Davers’ trusteeship. Here is the 
Bishop’s amusing answer : 


““ Rome, 
VST Tani Too ae 


‘“T have read over with the greatest attention my ever 
dearest Harry Mr. Batt’s opinion & will venture to say that 
if that opinion be law & that he adopts, neither He nor the law 
have common sense in them; & that is the opinion of a man 
who seeks to trepan one into a Chancery Suit in order to devour 
the Oyster & leave the two Shells to the Bishop and his Trustee. 

“The question therefore to be propounded by you now 
to Two or three good Chamber Counsel is by what Legal means 
a Bishop can rid himself of a Trustee who is offensive to him 
& who wishes to keep the Trust in spite of the Bishop. For 
dear Harry can anything be more tyrannical or more absurd 
than the proposition that when a man has appointed for a 
Trustee his Friend, and that Friend becomes his enemy, he 
cannot get rid of him. Or suppose Sr. Chas. Davers to become 
Insane, or to go, as his eldest brother did, into the very depth 
of the American Forests & Lakes whence no one heard of him 


636 The Earl Bishop 


ee OOP sie LOE Ne eT 


for 2 or 3 years together, or to become Paralytick or Apoplectick 
& incapable of signing his name—has the Bishop no remedy 
but a Bill in Chancery ? which cannot heal a Paralytick nor a 
Apoplectic man, cannot reach a man on Lake Huron or Lake 
Superior, cannot reach a man in Japan or Kamchatka. But 
what benefit does a trustee derive from the Trust that he cannot 
be removed from it by a B. in Chanc.—(riswm teneatis amici?) — 

“Observe to your Lawyers that Sr. Ch. D. is not the original 
Trustee but is successor to Mr. John Swan my Agent, who 
was removed from the Trust when he was removed from the 
Agency, & with the same facility & the same despotick stroke 
ofa Pen. So that if the Leases made to the Trustee Gouldsbury 
be illegal, the same leases for 20 years successively made to 
Sr. Ch. D. successor to John Swan—are also illegal, nugatory, 
vain, & the Leases & the Trust are now expired. ) 

‘““Make these damned devils of Lawyers feel this, & also 
that I am determined to give & to sell all these leases to you 
—®& then also I conclude all the trust made either to Mr. Swan 
or his successor Sr. Ch. or Mr. Gouldsburg is null & void, & 
the property remains in you—I pause for a reply. B. 

“The true question to Counsel is what are the means by 
which to remove a trustee for a B.’s lease—become either 
Hostile, negligent, or offensive.” 


CHAPTER LXV 
1803 


ae? Bishop, undiscouraged by the pillage and confiscation 
| of his former collections, continued—with the true spirit 
of the collector—to make new acquisitions.* 

Lord Cloncurry, who (as the Hon. Valentine Lawless) was 
in Rome in the spring and summer of 1803, remarks in his 
“Personal Recollections”’ that ‘‘an effect of the exactions 
of the French in Rome had involved the Roman citizens of the 
upper classes in extreme financial difficulties, which obliged 
them to sell their pictures, statues, and other works of art, 
and made Rome a very favourable market for the Virtuoso. 
Among those who dealt largely in that traffic was the noted 
Hervey, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, who was in the 
habit of receiving regular remittances from home of upwards 
of £5,000 quarterly, which he immediately expended in the 
purchase of every article of vertu that came within his 
reach. . . . Toward the end of the quarter the noble Prelate 
used to find his purse absolutely empty and his credit so low 
as to be insufficient to buy him a bottle of Orvieto. Then 
followed a dispersion of his collection as rapid as it was gathered, 
but as might be expected at a heavy discount.” 

That the Bishop was at times in great straits for money 
during the latter days appears from his correspondence with 
Harry Bruce, which is full of complaints of his London bankers, 
Messrs. Gosling, who “ protested” his drafts. Messrs. Gosling, 
knowing that the Bishop’s English property was strictly entailed 


* In the exportation records for 1802, published by Bertolotti (‘‘ Archivio Storico di 
Roma,” IV. (1878), 488), we find that on November 10 the Bishop sent the follow- 
ing pictures to England: The Flood, by Berzie; a Sibyl, by Benvenuto (Tisio ?) ; Cain, by 
Frederick Rehberg ; a Venus, copied from Paolo Veronese, by Camuccini; a landscape, 
copied from Claude, by Partini; the Death of Hector, by Umel (sic) ; the whole valued 
at 2,000 piastres, so that he apparently acquired other objects of art. (‘‘ Papers of the 
British School at Rome”’ (‘‘ Norman Jenkinsin Rome ’’), by Dr. Thomas Ashby, Vol. VI., 
(1913),No. 8.) The destination of these pictures is unknown. They are not to be traced 
at Downhill or Ickworth, 


VOL. II. 637 20 


638 The Earl Bishop 


on his successors, presumably anticipated that at the rate 
the Bishop was spending, in the event of his death there would 
not be sufficient personalty left to meet his debt to themselves. | 
Apparently they were not aware of the extent of the resources | 
which he had secretly acquired in Ireland, or how shrewd and 
careful a superintendent of these he had in the Rev. Mr. Bruce. 
They only had experience of the unlimited demands of the 
Bishop’s reckless expenditure in Italy, and knew that his property 
there was subject to confiscation and ruin. 

The Bishop, unaccustomed to any restraint being put on 
his desires, complains to Bruce (Rome, February 12, 1803) : 
Ley, (Messrs. Gosling) have most incredibly & most mysteri- 
ously not only lavish’d away all my vast deposits of Irish’ 
remittances but even protested my drafts for want of effects, 
& nothing can save me but a speedy supply.” ‘ 











Feb 2200 Tear 


‘““My DEAREST Harry, there is again so shameful a perplexity | 
in Mr. Gosling’s account, & so alarming a deficit that I must en-7 
treat you as One of the very few persons on whom I can rely to | 
ride over to Derry & accelerate all you can that Honest Man Mr. 
Bond’s remittances to Gosling’s house in order to extricate me: 
from the Insupportable difficulties & distresses into which they 
have plunged me. ‘Zs satd they have paid {£10,000 to the} 
husband of my granddaughter* without my privity or even’ 
suspicion. Mr. Bond must not on any account think of paying” 
this year my Bond either to Lord Erne or the widows.} Self- 
preservation is now my only object. Adieu dearest H. & 
Letitia.’ 4 
i 

On February 24 he writes that he has “sent a letter of 
Attorney to Two Lawyers to examine and control them ”’ (Messrs. 
Gosling). ‘‘ Honest & punctual’’ Mr. Bond is “to remit to 
That execrable House until further notice as speedily & as 
largely as possible that they may no longer protest my Bills 
& once more put me on Short Commons.” 

On March 2, 1803, Messrs. Gosling were still ‘“ protesting 
all my drafts like so many madmen.”’ 


c¢ 


* Mrs. Ellis, the Bishop’s granddaughter (the only child of John Augustus, Lord — 
Hervey), had lately died. Her fortune was £10,000, and her husband, Charles Rose Ellis 
(afterwards Lord Seaford), probably claimed it on behalf of their only child, who, on the 
Bishop’s death, became Lord Howard de Walden. 


+ Of “ the Widows ” one was probably Lady Hervey, the widow of John Augustus ; 
the nihen perhaps Lady Elizabeth Foster, whose husband had died in 17096. 





The Earl Bishop 639 


“Rome, 
“March oth, 1803. 


“Yours of the 12 Jan. just arrived proves to me how ex- 
cellent a steward & how zealous a friend you are.” 


“Rome, 
+ 21. March 1803) 
“MY EVER DEAREST HARRY, 

“As I expect very soon to rid myself entirely of 
such very incorrect & Baneful Bankers as Messrs. Gosling, 
I have requested that Honest punctual One Mr. Bond to remit 
annually henceforth to Mr. Thomas Coutts & Co. the sum 
_of £100 sterling for the use of my god-daughter Madame Schaden 
of Ratisbonne; Also for another God-daughter {£30 St. to 
Mlle. Sophie Sneyder of Munich; Also {60 a year St. for Mr. 
Louis Harnier of Frankfort; & to beg Mr. Thomas Coutts 
to apprize said individuals of having said sums at their disposal. 
As soon as my accounts are finally closed with Gosling, I shall 
entreat you to see that Mr. Bond do remit all my Irish money 
to Mr. Thomas Coutts & Co.” 


Building at Ballyscullion was proceeding as well as at 
Ickworth. 


‘“J am impatient for the result of Mr. Mitchell’s measurement 
of the Galleries & various articles at B Scullion as I fear old 
Shanahan is deeply in my debt.” 


The last letter extant from the Bishop to Harry Bruce 
is as follows : 


‘““ Rome, 
18 April 

‘““Mr. Sampson, as reputed the best preacher in my diocese, 
must go to Strabane when vacant. 

“Mr. Christie to the first vacancy except Strabane, & Mr. 
Babington to the next after Mr. Christie of Clandermot. Always 
allowing for the necessary & proper removes of which for fear 
of a Lapse from want of time, I leave you my dear Harry the 
sole judge. 

« As to John Hill whom I wish much to oblige both for his 
own sake, & that of his Family—my old & constant friends— 

. . try in case of a vacancy in Cumber if you can negotiate 
an exchange with young Gouldsburg whom you have orders 
to remove upon Waddy’s decease. I am glad to find I am no 


VOL. II. 20* 


640 The Earl Bishop 


loser by the Bill of £500 protested, as it was subtracted by Mr. — 
Gosling from the immense Irish Remittances. B. ; 

“T long to hear you have succeeded with Dr. R. & are 
in possession of Cappan lease as the great addition to your | 
family requires such an addition to your income in order to © 
make you & dearest Letitia as comfortable as I wish to see 
you, which makes my comfort much more than a dirty £500 a 
year to benefit no one but myself who do not want it. B.” i 





Two more letters from the Bishop conclude the series 
among the Downhill Papers. Written in May, 1803, they are 
addressed to the Rev. Mr. Gouldsburg, who resided at the 
Palace of Derry and who had long rendered the Bishop faithful © 
and valued service in the combined offices of Chaplain-resident, © 
trustee and agent. Both relate to the Cappan lease, and show | 
him still “‘in the greatest want of cash.’ In one he repeats © 
the interesting statement that “‘ The Union has greatly raised q 
the Value of Lands.” A 

Gouldsburg died without receiving the letters, as his son | 
states in a letter to Bruce. The Bishop himself did not survive ’ 
to know of Gouldsburg’s death. | 

Apparently the Bishop’s “ health, spirits, looks, and energy ”” | 
remained—to quote his own words—‘ all that his friends could i 
desire,’ throughout the spring and early summer of 1803, 
and up to the time when he was attacked by sudden and fatal 
illness. Strange reports and stories of all kinds continued to- 
gather about the old man to the last: and these were likely | 
to be highly impregnated with scandal in Italian cities. ‘ 

When the current gossip is retailed, in a letter, by Miss 
Catherine Wilmot (a young Irish lady travelling with Lord 
& Lady Mount Cashell during the spring of 1803) it may 
assume a more damaging aspect than it would have had in> 
the circles in which it was lightly generated ; while the appear- 
ance of the Bishop, as viewed by this vivacious letter writer 
from the windows of her hotel, surely loses nothing of grostesque- 
ness by her farcical descriptions. 

Here is a paragraph relating to him in a letter to her brother 
from Rome in April, 1803 : 


“Lord Bristol, the Bishop of Derry lives in her neigh- 
bourhood (Angelica Kauffmann’s). As his house is an exhibi-— 
tion of the fine arts, we went to see it, and were amused as_ 
well with its contents, as the singularity of the arrangement. 
He is the patron of all modern artists, whose wives he not 
only associates with as his only female company, but has 





The Earl Bishop 641 


their pictures drawn as Venuses all over the House. His 
three favorite mistresses are beautifully represented as Juno, — 
Minerva, and Venus, in the Judgment of Paris. Tho’ he is one 
of the greatest curiosities alive, yet such is his notorious character 
for profane conversation, & so great a reprobate is he in the 
unlicensed sense of the word, that the English do not esteem 
it a very creditable thing to be much in his society, excepting 
only where curiosity particularly prompts. I have often 
seen him riding & driving past our windows, & his appearance 
is so very singular that I must describe it to you. His figure 
is little, & his face very sharp & wicked ; on his head he wore 
a purple velvet night cap with a tassel of gold dangling over 
his shoulder & a sort of mitre to the front ; silk stockings & 
slippers of the same colour, and a short round petticoat, such 
as Bishops wear, fringed with gold about his knees. A loose 
dressing-gown of silk was then thrown over his shoulders. 
In this Merry Andrew trim he rode on horseback to the never- 
ending amusement of all Beholders! The last time I saw 
him he was sitting in his carriage between two Italian women, 
dress’d in white Bed-gown & Night-cap like a witch & giving 
himself the airs of an Adonis. The stories one hears of him 
are endless both in the line of immorality & irreligion, & in 
general he contrives to affront everyone he invites to his 
table. To counter-balance all this he admires the Arts, supports 
the Artists, & spends such a quantity of money in Italy, that 
amongst other rarities which he has purchased, he has also 
purchased Friends. However his residence at Rome has 
thoroughly confirm’d the idea which most Foreigners have 
of the English character being the most bizarre in the world, 
bizarre but generous.” (‘An Irish Peer on the Continent,” 
edited by Thomas Sadleir, 1920, page 179.) 


This witty lady’s description of the Bishop’s attire is so 
different from that of others, that it would seem either that 
her imagination led her into inaccuracy, or that the Bishop 
himself, chameleon-like, appeared to different observers 
to present a different aspect in his physical exterior, as he 
did in his moral character. Lord Cloncurry, who like Miss 
Wilmot was in Rome during the last months, perhaps the 
last days, of the Bishop’s life, gives an account of his dress and 
head-gear which does not tally with the lady’s version. He 
records that at this time he often saw ‘“‘the eccentric Earl 
Bishop ride about the streets of Rome dressed in red plush 
breeches and a broad-brimmed white, or straw hat, and was 
often asked if that was the canonical costume of an Irish 


642 The Earl Bishop 


Prelate.” The Gentleman's Magazne (the editor of which 
was a personal friend of the Bishop) gives soon afterwards 
what is probably the most correct account of the Bishop’s— 


costume—“‘ The late Earl of Bristol when in Italy distinguished 


himself by a peculiarity of dress. He wore a white hat edged 
with purple, a coat of crimson silk or velvet (according to the © 


season), a black sash spangled with silver, and purple stockings.” 


But the time was at hand when the quaint notorious. 
figure, scanned from window or pointed out by passers by in © 
the street with merry jest or innuendo, ceased to be one of the 


familiar sights of the Eternal City. 
The end came suddenly. When on his way—probably 
on horseback—from Albano to Rome, early in July, the 


Bishop was seized with gout in the stomach, the malady — 
which had so often endangered his life. He was carried, © 
says Cloncurry, “‘to the out-house of a cottage in conse- © 
quence of the unwillingness of the peasants to admit a heretic | 
prelate to die under their roof,’ and there he expired on the 


8th July, 1803. 


The last act of the Bishop is reported by Lord Nelson — 


in a letter to Lady Hamilton: “‘ There will be no Table from 
Lord Bristol” (as a legacy to Lady Hamilton), he tells her : 
“He tore his last will a few hours before his death. It is 





a ee Se 


said that it was giving everything to those Italian devils about — 
him. I wish he may have left Mrs. Denis anything, but — 
I do not think it: and as for you, my dear Emma, as long — 
as I can, I don’t want any of these gifts.” (‘Lord Nelson’s © 


Letters to Lady Hamilton ’’—letter dated “ Victory off Toulon, 
October 18th, 1803.”’ 


News of the Bishop’s death did not reach his son for nearly ~ 
a month, when he at once wrote the following letter to his — 


cousin, Lord Mulgrave. (Original at Mulgrave Castle.) 


‘“ Eastbourne, 
“‘ Aug. 2nd, 1803. 
“My DEAR MULGRAVE, 
“T have to announce to you the melancholy event of 
my poor Father’s death at Albano on the 8th of last month. 
I have received it this morning & you will easily believe the 


acute regret which I now experience from a variety of cir-_ 


cumstances with which you are well acquainted. What would 


I not give to have seen him, & to have taken advantage of | 


the short interval of Peace to go to him in Italy! My love to 
Edmund, & BUCUET ES) yr ever most truly & affectly 
“ HERVEY.” 


The Earl Bishop 6438 


It would seem from Lord Nelson’s report of the Bishop 
having destroyed his “last will” that it was by this act that 
the will made at Annan in 1791, with the codicil added at 
Aosta in 31794, remained unrevoked (see Appendix). By it 
the Bishop bequeathed to Henry Hervey Bruce, with the 
exception of small legacies, the whole of his personal, real and 
leasehold property, which included the mansions of Downhill 
and Ballyscullion. Ickworth and the rest of the settled property 
in England, in which the Earl Bishop had only a life interest, 
passed to his son Frederick William, Lord Hervey, who suc- 
ceeded as fifth Earl of Bristol. By the terms of his father’s 
will he only received £1,000, being designated in it “ my un- 
gratefull and undutyfull”’ son. As the quarrel between father 
and son had been made up many years before, it is likely that 
the destroyed “ will ” (or codicil) contained favourable mention 
of Frederick, but, whatever that may have been, it shared 
the fate of the legacy to the “Italian Devils.” It seems 
unlikely, however, that the Bishop in his last will altered the 
bequest of the bulk of his property to Bruce, towards whom, 
changeable as was the Bishop in many ways, he had never 
changed in his attitude of affection and regard. 

News of the Bishop’s death did not of course reach Bruce 
in Ireland for many weeks. While unaware of the event, 
and little suspecting that he was himself already the master 
of the houses and lands he superintended, he addressed to 
his patron the following letter which, eventually returning 
to him, with the Bishop’s effects, still remains among the 
papers at Downhill : 


“ Finlagan, 
ISt Ausra 

“My DEAR Lorp, 

«Since I came home, the Publick attention has been 
almost entirely taken up, in carrying into effect the Acts 
lately passed, one for raising an additional Military force 
on the plan of the Militia, and another for putting each 
County in the best possible state of Defence for preventing & 
repelling Invasion, & in the midst of this Business, a consider- 
able degree of alarm has been raised, by an attempt to incite 
another Rebellion. 

‘The insurrection however has been confined to a small 
portion of the City of Dublin ; it took place on the evening of 
the 23rd July, in the neighbourhood of James’s Street, Francis 
Street, & Thomas Street, & was almost immediately 
suppressed, but not till Lord Kilwarden & Mr. Wolfe his 


644. The Earl Bishop 


nephew, who happened unfortunately to be passing through 
Thomas Street, were dragged out of their carriage & murdered 
in the most barbarous manner with Pikes. Immense numbers 
of these weapons have been seized, & many Prisoners taken, 


and such discoveries are daily making, as it is hoped will 


enable Government to get to the bottom of this conspiracy | 
as fully as the last. 


{ 


| 
‘ 
) 
| 
4 


«This country is perfectly quiet, & the different Parishes , 
here are laying on, without any difficulty, a sum of money — 
for raising by bounty their several Quotas of men, necessary ~ 
tomakeup the additional Force of ten thousand, ordered to be - 
levied in Ireland, the proportion of which to the County of | 


Derry i is 350. 


settlement of accounts: there will be some arrears accruing 
since the last settlement made by his Father, which he will 
pay up immediately on its being ascertained, & you will 
not suffer anything but the loss of so valuable a Man, but the 
death of poor Mr. Gouldsbury. 

‘“T now send your Lordship a Power of Attorney to appoint 
his successor, a Blank is left for the insertion of the Name, 
& I have still every reason to think, that the Place would 
be ably & faithfully filled by Mr. Babington. When I 
saw F. Gouldsbury he told me, he had been induced, on second 
thoughts to ask the See Agency for himself & Mr. Bond 
in conjunction, but I told him I thought your Lordship would 
rather have different Persons as your Agent & Banker, & 
for this reason, that one would always be a check on the other. 

‘“ Whatever you may determine, no exertion shall be wanting 
on my part to keep everything right in the several departments. 

“YT found Letitia’s health much improved on my return, 
she joins in love & duty with my dear Lord, your ever 
obliged & affectionate 

“ HENRY BRUCE.” 


There can be no doubt that the eccentric Earl Bishop 
was mourned by many who lost in him a generous benefactor. 
There was much truth if some exaggeration in the encomium 
in the Gentleman's Magazine which accompanied the announce- 
ment of his death; and it can hardly be suspected of in- 
sincerity or of any design to please the members of the deceased’s 
family, who, in fact, were little likely to be satisfied with his 
prodigality or with his conduct in relation to themselves. 
‘There is not a country in Europe,” says this obituary notice, 
‘““ where the distressed have not obtained his succour and the 


Frank ( Gouldsbury has been here, & is now making a 


The Earl Bishop 645 


oppressed his protection. He may truly be said to have clothed 
the naked and fed the hungry, and as ostentation never con- 
stituted real charity, his left hand did not know what his right 
hand distributed. The tears and lamentations of widows 
have discovered his philanthropy when he is no more; and 
letters from Swiss patriots and French emigrants, from Italian 
Catholics and German Protestants, prove the noble use his 
lordship made of his fortune, indiscriminately to the poor, 
destitute, and unprotected, of all countries, of all parties, and of 
all religions. But as no man is without his enemies and envy 
is most busy about the most deserving, some of his lordship’s 
singularities have been the object of calumny, and his pecu- 
liarities ridiculed as affected ; when the former were only the 
result of pure conduct, and the latter the consequence of an 
entire independence, long enjoyed, serviceable to many, baneful 
to none.”’ 

Among those who had most reason to regret their patron 
were the Artists of Rome. It is said that 800 of them, of 
every nationality, attended his obsequies to show honour 
to his memory. Where these obsequies took place is not 
recorded, but it would appear that the body was given a tem- 
porary resting-place in Rome before its removal to England. 

Meanwhile there was no member or representative of the 
Bishop’s family to superintend his affairs in Italy. 

Lord Cloncurry states that he ‘“‘ took charge of the wreck 
of the Bishop’s property at Rome and was enabled to save it 
for his heirs.”” It appears, however, from a more reliable source 
of information (‘‘ Anglo-Roman Papers,’ Brady, page 197) 
that Cardinal Erskine was the first to secure the dead man’s 
effects from depredation: ‘‘ Out of good feeling and kindness 
of heart, he took upon himself a troublesome duty more properly 
to be discharged by a British Minister had there been onen! 
We learn that the Earl of Bristol and Protestant Bishop of Derry 
having died ‘‘ with none but hired servants and salaried persons 
at his deathbed,” Cardinal Erskine came forward in the absence 
of the late Earl’s son in England ; and being uncertain whether 
there was any will or testamentary document, “ took pro- 
visional possession of all property of the deceased,’ who had 
“left not a few debts,” and “a disorder in his affairs,” in con- 
sequence of his large purchases and the numerous ‘““ commis- 
sions he had given to artists.’ The Cardinal employed his 
own Auditor, the Avvocato Celestini, to compile an inventory 
of everything belonging to the late Earl, and to collect and 
transport all the articles to Rome. Erskine also secured 
the safety of such of the property of the deceased as remained 


646 The Earl Bishop 


in Florence in the Villa Strozzi, and this was done by getting | 
Duke Strozzi to serve notice on the keeper of the Villa not to © 
allow the least thing to be removed by anyone who was not 


legally authorized. 


The manner in which the new Earl of Bristol regarded the _ 
conduct of Erskine on this occasion will be best seen from the 


following letter which is still preserved : 


“Tunbridge, 
“ August 29, 1803. 
“* MY DEAR CARDINAL, 


“It is quite impossible that I should ever be able 
to express how deeply & sensibly I feel your kind & friendly ~ 
conduct on the late melancholy occasion. No words can ~ 
convey it, so I will not attempt it, but trust to your doing — 
justice to the feelings which it is out of my power to describe. — 


May we sometime or other meet at Rome, & you will then be 


in some degree a judge of the impression which your real kind- — 


ness has made upon me. 
“Since I heard from you I have had a letter from Torlonia, 


who I find is in considerable advance, both during my poor 


Father’s life & since, for the various expenses which have 
arisen. I answered it by general civility, but could take 
no step respecting the money till | know whether there is a 
will amongst the papers at Rome. This letter is of course 
entirely for yourself. The last will which has been found 
in this country was written at a time when I was not on good 
terms with my father, & leaves all the personalty to distant 
relations. 

“Tf unfortunately there is no subsequent will in Italy 
it will fall to the person who gets the personalty (a Mr. Henry 
Bruce in Ireland) to pay all the debts in all parts of the world. 
All the landed estate was entailed upon me, & therefore comes 
to me without being subject to his debts of any description, 
& if the personalty is left away from me, as that is more than 
twenty times sufficient to discharge his debts, I shall leave the 
law to take its course and pay nothing but those expenses, if 
any sort, which your Eminence may have ordered, and which 
of course will be an exception to my general rule. You see, 
my dear Cardinal, that this is a letter of perfect confidence, 
intended for your own eye. Torlonia need be under no un- 
easiness. As soon as we know whether there is another will 
& who are the executors, immediate steps can be taken to pay 
all debts of every description without an hour’s delay. Adieu, 
my dear Cardinal, and believe me to be with the most sincere 





The Earl Bishop 647 


attachment your truly obliged and affectionate friend & 
servant, 
‘“ BRISTOL.’ 


This letter, stamped by the Foreign Office postal stamp and 
sealed with a black seal with the Earl’s arms, was directed 
in French: ‘“‘ A son Eminence Monseigneur Erskine, &c., En son 
Hotel 4 Rome.” (‘‘ Anglo-Roman Papers,’ Brady.) 

The will was proved by Bruce and Maxwell, two of the 
executors, in December, 1803, in Dublin, and on January 28, 
1804, in London. It is now at Somerset House. The terms of 
the will led to its being disputed by the Bishop’s daughters ; 
but a compromise was effected, and by a deed of March 2, 1804, 
they renounced their claims in consideration of a sum of 
£15,000, which was charged on the Irish Estates. It should 
be recorded that Bruce’s conduct throughout was marked by 
good feeling and a scrupulous sense of duty. A letter to him 
from the young Lord Bristol, among the papers at Downhill, 
attests to the very friendly and affectionate character of their 
relations; while Bruce, on his part, in a letter addressed to 
Betham (author of the “ Baronetage ’’) remarks : From the 
kind partiality of the late Earl of Bristol to me, and the con- 
tinued friendship & warm attachment of the present, I wish 
that my relationship to that family should be particularly 
noticed in the History of the Baronets.’ This was written 
in connection with his being created a Baronet in 1804—an 
honour which, rarely bestowed on a clergyman, he owed to the 
recommendation of his friend, the first Lord Londonderry. 
With Downhill, and Ballyscullion,* ‘‘ the Round House,’ which 
the Bishop had left unfinished, Bruce inherited those Italian 
collections which the Bishop had deposited in both houses 
before his final departure from Ireland; the former being a 
veritable store-house of pictures and statuary. Downhill is 
now the seat of the present Baronet, but, alas, the greater 
part of the Bishop’s treasures, with the galleries, the famous 
library and the fine organ, was destroyed by fire in 1851. 

As to the Bishop’s latest collectiont in Italy, their ultimate 
__ * Ballyscullion, ‘‘ the round house,”’ which the Bishop had left unfinished, was partly 


demolished by the first Sir H. Hervey Bruce—it is said on account of the Window tax. 
The property and ruined house passed to his second son and the descendants of the latter. 


+ Fortunately a beautiful sculpture said to be by Raphael, of a dolphin carrying a 
wounded child, a cast of which is in the Dresden Gallery, was saved, and 1s now at Down- 
hill, as are also many family portraits and miniatures. ; 

From listsin Sampson’s “Survey of the County of Derry ’”’ (1802) and Neal’s ‘‘ Views of 
Seats ” (1821), and alsoa manuscript catalogue at Downhill, compiled by Lady Bruce, wife 
of the second Baronet (1842), we may gather what were the Bishop’s collections at 
Downhill and also at Ballyscullion, though the latter were eventually removed to and 
added to the former. 


648 The Earl Bishop 


fate is surrounded with some mystery. We have seen that 
Cardinal Erskine took charge of them on the Bishop’s death, — 
pending instructions from England and the settlement of the 
Italian creditors’ claims. Bruce did his part for the prompt 
payment of these, as appears by a letter from Coutts, the English — 
banker, to the Cardinal, dated October 31, 1803, stating that 
“the Rev. Henry Hervey Bruce the heir to the personalty had — 
given him an order to open in his name a credit with Torlonia 
for £14,000, with which to satisfy the debts due to Torlonia — 
and to all the other creditors of the defunct Lord Bristol.” — 
(‘“‘ Anglo-Roman Papers,” Brady.) | 

The claims of the creditors, however, apparently remaining ~ 
in dispute, they became clamorous for a settlement, and un- 
willing to abide the result of proceedings in England, or to wait 
for the arrival in Rome of the heir, petitioned the Pope to 
nominate Erskine administrator of the inheritance. The Pope 
desired his Auditor, Monsignor Lucchini, to communicate with 
Cardinal Erskine, and ascertain his wishes on the subject. 
The Cardinal in reply told Monsignor Lucchini that he could 
not accept this charge, and that his exertions had been for the 
purpose of securing the property and preventing dilapidations 
and pillage. He therefore took the liberty of suggesting 
Avvocato Celestini, who had hitherto acted in the affair and 
knew all the circumstances of the case, as a proper person to 
be made Administrator. Now, however, as his object of saving 
the property had been attained, he resigned all superintendence 
of the late Earl’s affairs, and declined all further proposals to 
assume the management or distribution of the assets. (/bid., 
Brady.) 

From letters* among the Vatican Archives it transpires that 
Celestini gave up the administration of the Bristol estate in 
Rome on December 14, 1804, and that the heir (Bruce) having 
on the 12th opened a credit of {14,000 to pay the debts against 
it, Robert Fagan (who acted as British Agent in Rome) was 
deputed to look after it. Incidentally we learn that two 
scoundrelly servants, Elia Giunti, the late lord’s ‘‘ cameriere ”’ 
and Giuseppe Vecchia, known as ‘“‘ Peppe la diritta ’’—who 
spoiled their master in life and death (he is spoken of as “ quel 
dovizioso pazzo’’)—were put in prison, but managed to get 
themselves let out by one of the Papal officials. There is a 
complaint as to this, and an apology from the authorities. 

The next Papal documents relating to the matter belong to 
March, 1806 ("" Vatican Archives,’ 269, A.,6, 7), > Thereyias 


* Letters recently arranged by Cardinal Gasquet. Reference 269, A. 6,5. Information 
kindly sent me by Dr. Ashby, head of the British School, Rome. 





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‘OPIS YO “YPOMAIT 








— 


The Earl Bishop 649 


letter of the Papal Treasurer General (11. III., 06), from which 
it appears that “the heir of Lord Bristol, Milord Bruce” (he 
was now a Baronet), had suggested, and most of the creditors 
had agreed, that the “ objets d’art’’ should be sold at half 
their estimated value, and His Holiness was being asked to 
authorize the sale, notwithstanding the objections of the other 
creditors. (There follows a claim (March 31, 1806) by one Felice 
Africani for a credit of 3,000 scudi.) 

It would seem that no settlement was arrived at, and the 
fact that the Papal States became French (in 1808) accounts 
for the absence of further correspondence. 

The following anecdote which the late Lady Augustus 
Hervey, mother of the present Marquis of Bristol, was so kind 
as to write down at my request, throws a curious light on the 
story of the Bishop’s Italian possessions. A generation had 
passed since his death, but the tradition had survived to reach 
the knowledge of the late Frederick Leighton, the illustrious 
painter. ‘‘It was at the house of the Duke and Duchess of 
Torlonia in Rome”’ (relates Lady Augustus Hervey), ‘ during a 
ball they were giving, and Fred Leighton, in the intervals of a 
valse, called my attention to the statues—many in the great 
Ball-room, telling me the story, in a hushed way, of how an 
English nobleman had bought and paid for them, and the 
Italian Government were to send, or permit them to be sent to 
England, and how they never turned up—but the Government 
stole them, and they pretended the vessel holding them had 
been wrecked. Well, after long years, there they were en masse 
in the Torlonia Palace in Rome !”’ 

And what of Ickworth—the great unfinished house which 
the Bishop designed to contain his later collections, and where 
he never set foot ? 

Arthur Young (who survived the Bishop some years) 
remarks in his Autobiography that ‘the shell’’ of this fantastic 
building, and that of its still more extraordinary possessor, were 
finished at the same time, and my lord left the whole, as if by 
design, a burden to his son and successors, from whom he gave 
away by will the very furniture of the old habitable house at 
Ickworth. (A. Young’s Autobiography, pages 104-5. Betham 
Edwards.) 

Whatever the “ burdens’”’ thus, as it were, imposed upon 
him, the fifth Earl of Bristol carried to completion, in the course 
of years and at a cost, it is said, of some £200,000, the palatial 
and magnificent structure designed by his father. It was not, 
however, till very many years had passed that he removed 
from Ickworth Lodge and took up his residence in the great 


650 The Earl Bishop 


house. In the meantime, on the death of his uncle, Sir Charles — 
Davers, in 1806, he had succeeded to the Rushbrook property ; 
and in 1826 he was created Marquis of Bristol and Earl Jermyn, 
the latter title being in recognition of his having inherited the 
estate of his maternal ancestors the Jermyns of Rushbrook, 

from whom he was also descended on his father’s side. | 








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CHAP TORY, f 


HERE remains to be related the fate of the Bishop's 
‘“* Shell ’?—Arthur Young’s word. 

Long delay occurred before the body could be embarked 
from Italy to England. 

At the request of Mr. Elliot, the British Minister at Naples, 
Captain George Hart, R.N., conveyed it on a man-of-war, Lhe 
Monmouth ; while even after death singularity of circumstance 
continued to be associated with the singular personage whose 
whole career had been extraordinary and exceptional; for 
Elliot, being obliged to humour the superstitious dread with 
which sailors regard the presence of a corpse on board ship, 
caused the body of this munificent patron of sculpture to be 
packed and shipped as an antique statue.* At Portsmouth 
Captain Hart ceased his superintendence of his strange cargo, 
which travelled thence to London en route for Ickworth un- 
attended by any member of the dead man’s family. 

In a letter, among the Downhill Papers, from Captain Hart, 
written 5th November, 1805, and addressed to the Rev. Sir Hervey 
Bruce, Bart., Hart, recalling the fact of his having brought the late 
Lord Bristol’s remains to England, mentions that on his arrival 
at Portsmouth he acquainted Lord Hawkesbury, to whom he 
had a letter of introduction from Lord Nelson, which he was 
“under the necessity of sending by post from Portsmouth, not 
being able at that time to get to London.” He complains that 
Lord Hawkesbury did not acknowledge his communications, 
nor see him when a few weeks afterwards he arrived in town and 
“ called at Lord Hawkesbury’s frequently.”’ ‘‘ None of Lord 
Bristol’s family,’ he adds, ‘‘ has thought it necessary to take the 
smallest notice of me since, a thing 1 know to be very unusual 
in the like cases, and, if I can assign any reason for it, it appears 
to me as if they were offended with me for bringing to England 
the remains of the late Earl of Bristol, instead of considering 
themselves under any obligation. I certainly was not obliged 

* This fact was probably the origin ot a fable, still repeated, that the Bishop’s body 
was lost and that a statue was buried instead. 


651 


652 The Earl Bishop 


to do it, and I even acted contrary to my instructions in doing 
so. These things I mention to you in confidence lest you might 
not have been acquainted with them and to make such use of as 
you may judge best.’’* 

The Earl Bishop was buried at Ickworth more than nine 
months after his death, his coffin being placed beside the coffins 
of his elder brothers, George and Augustus, Earls of Bristol, in 
the family vault just outside the east end of the church.t The 
Ickworth parish register records: “‘ The Right Honble. and 
Rev. Frederick Earl of Bristol, Baron Hervey of Ickworth,+ 
and Bishop of Derry in Ireland, died July 8, 1803, buried 
April 21, 1804. 

While there is no memorial to the Bishop in Ickworth 
Church, an obelisk erected in the park bears testimony not only 
to his popularity with all classes in his diocese, but to the unique 
position which this extraordinary man held in the hearts of 
Irishmen the most bitterly opposed to each other—testimony 
the more striking that he had not set foot in Ireland for more 
than ten years. 


Sacred to the Memory of 
FREDERICK, EARL OF BRISTOL, BISHOP OF DERRY, ETC. 
who during 35 years that he Presided 
over that See, endeared himself 
to all denominations of Christians 
resident in that extensive diocese. 

He was the friend and protector of them all. 
His great patronage was 
Uniformly administered upon the purest and 
Most disinterested principles. 
Various and important public works 
were undertaken at his instigation 
and completed by his munificence ; 
and hostile sects which had long entertained 
feelings of deep animosity towards each other 
were gradually softened and reconciled 
by his influence and example. 
Grateful for benefits 
which they can never forget 
the inhabitants of Derry 
have erected at Ickworth 
this durable record of their attachment. 
The Roman Catholic Bishop 
And the Dissenting Minister resident at Derry 
were among those that contributed 
to this monument. 


Opus hoc Concivium benevolentia 
Patri institutum 
grato animo accepit, et qua par est pietate 
auxit Filius. 


* Hart evidently expected promotion as a reward for his undertaking. 

¢ On the restoration of Ickworth Church by the present Marquis the vault was de- 
molished, the coffins being removed to a newer one. 

; It may be noted here that the Bishop had become in 1799 de jure Baron Howard 
de Walden, but did not claim the title, 


The Earl Bishop 653 


It has been well said that this inscription should never fall 
into decay, so that it may proclaim through all the ages that 
there once was a time and there once was a place when and 
where Irishmen of various Churches joined together in the 
promotion of a common object. 


FINIS 


VOL. Il. al 


APPENDIX 


WILL AND CODICIL 


WILL made at Annan (Scotland), 1791, where he was detained by illness 
on his final journey from Ireland abroad. See chapter under date 
September, 17091. 

Codicil added February 26, 1794, at Aosta. See chapter for that date. 


Will and Codicil of Frederick Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry 
179i (Annan Scotland). 
(Somerset House.) 


‘‘T Frederick Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry do declare this 
to be my last will and testament written on the seventeenth day 
of September seventeen hundred and ninety one hereby revoking 
all others and first I give and bequeathe unto my eldest son Lord 
Hervey, all my property of every denomination whatever in Great 
Britain subject however to my debts if I have any requesting him 
at the same time to continue to my Godson Frederick Franklin 
that annuity now paid him at Messrs Goslings Bankers and whereas 
my eldest brother George Earl of Bristol did by his last will be- 
queathe to me the sum of ten thousand pounds to be divided by 
my last will among my children in such portions as I chose and where- 
as I have already given to my daughter Lady Erne two thousand 
pounds of the same sum as her marriage portion and the like sum 
to my daughter Lady Elizabeth Foster now I do hereby confirm that 
sum to them respectively and of the remaining six thousand pounds 
I give to my affectionate and dutiful daughter Lady Louisa Hervey 
five thousand pounds and to my undutiful and ungrateful son 
Frederick William Hervey I give one thousand pounds and I do 
hereby give and bequeathe to my dearly beloved cousin Henry 
Bruce Rector of Aghadowvy in the diocese of Derry all my property 
of any denomination whatever in the kingdom of Ireland except 
as I may hereafter specify and whereas Sir Charles Davers Bart 
is possessed of the leasehold estates of Dunboe Grange Bay and 
Killcranahan held under the See of Derry for the joint use of me 
and my wife and the survivor now of my said wife shall within 
two months after my death settle my estates on my daughter Louisa 
failing her on my daughter Lady Erne and her daughter failing them 
on my daughter Elizabeth and her sons in succession then I give 


054 


Appendix 655 


and bequeathe all the furniture at Downhill to go according to 
such settlements and the furniture and decorations to go as far 
as may be as Heirs Loom to said House and the Liquors to last 
as they may but if my said wife shall decline to make settlement 
on my three daughters in succession then I give and bequeathe all 
my furniture decorations and liquors of every kind in said House 
to my cousin the said Henry Bruce I give and bequeathe the small 
lease in the parish of Langfield held by my friend James Galbraith 
in trust for me under the See of Derry unto Mrs Burroughs and 
her daughter Miss Selina Burroughs and to the longest liver To Miss 
Mary Ann Burroughs I give the sum of one hundred pounds To 
my steady and worthy friends Doctor Ferguson of Derry and to 
Richard Charlton Maxwell Esquire I give fifty pounds each for 
a mourning ring. To my Attorney Mr. James Galbraith I give 
the sum of two hundred pounds over and above his Bill in testimony 
of my strong regard for his friendship entreating him to continue 
that friendship to my cousin Mr. H. Bruce and I hereby appoint 
my eldest son Lord Hervey the Revd. Mr. H. Bruce Dr Ferguson 
and Richard Charlton Maxwell Esquire to be executors of this my 
last will 
‘Witness my hand this 17th day of September 1791 Bristol 
and Frederick Derry 
«Witness Tho. Booth Charles Collins Jas Norman.” 


(Extracted from the Registry of His Majesty’s Court of Prerogative 
in Ireland.) 


Codicil 1794. (Aosta Italy) 


‘“ Aosta 26th February 1794. 

‘T Frederick Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry declare this 
to be a Codicil to my last will and testament delivered to my dear 
Cousin the Revd. Mr. Henry Bruce and first I bequeathe to the 
said Mr. H. Bruce all my personal estate of every denomination 
in England as well as in Ireland I give to the said Mr. H. Bruce 
all my pictures Statues Busts Marbles Gesses as well as Rome 
Florence Leghorn to be disposed of as he judges best and as the 
Church lease in Dunboe is held by Sir Charles Davers in trust 
jointly for the Countess of Bristol and myself my will is that if the 
said Countess of Bristol within three months after the news of 
my death settle the said Church Lease of Dunboe upon my daughter 
Louisa that then and in that case all the superb furniture of that 
mansion shall go with the house and belong to the said Countess 
and my dear daughter Louisa but in case the said Countess shall 
decline or neglect to settle the said Church Lease then my will is 
that all the said furniture pictures statues busts Chimney-pieces 
shall belong to the said Mr Henry Bruce to dispose of as he pleases. 
I give and devise to Madame De Scheven born de Praut the sum 
of fifty pounds a year so long as she shall continue to live separate 
from that scoundrel and Brute her husband I give to Madame 
Diroff wife of Senator Diroff at Petersburg my portrait painted 
by Angelica and desire Mrs Henry Bruce will be so good as to send 
it to her at Petersburg I give and devise to Mrs. Burroughs and to 


656 


~ 


Appendix 


her daughter Miss Selina Burroughs the small Church Lease held in 
trust for me in the parish of Langfield and to the longest liver I 
warmly recommend to my son Lord Hervey my chaplain Mr. Lovell 
as a faithful and diligent friend and a great loser by my premature 
death As witness my hand and seal this day and year above 
mentioned Bristol Witnesses Trefusis Lovell Henry Tillin Chas 
Collins.” 


“Proved in common form of Law, and probate granted by the 
most Revd. Father William and so forth to the Rev. Henry Bruce 
Clerk and Richard Maxwell Esq. the surviving executors of said 
will and Codicil the 23rd of December 1803—-A true copy which I 
attest John Rawlins.’ 


Prinied at The Chapel River Press, Kingston, Surrey. 


INDEX 


i ¥, a 


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4 i Lyi ve sl Yr, 

Teen bet ; } wy 2 : 4 4 
' Dw 








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ead vy Wits MY Aner ae 


VS Ee Laan th 
AAS : fh 
i ' * ‘ “1” : y ai a om ty 


wen 
EC PALA vine es te an ey) Kh ra : ee 
mm) ete es A MA ths ate ; * ie y ree Was Dae 





oy oy 


INDEX 


A 


Acton, Sir John, 397, 561, 573 

Albany, Countess of, 173-4, 462, 601 

Alexander, James, 256 

Alfieri, 173, 462, 601; 
174, 463 

Alwalton, 27-35 

American War, 214-5, 217, 242-3 

Aosta, 459 

Ashby, Rev. George, 393 

Augustus, Prince, 472-4, 495 


letter from, 


B 


Balfour, Rev., 569 

Ballyscullion, 401-4, 415, 423 

Barnard family, the, 388, 392, 398-9 

, Rev. Henry, 398 

——, Dr. William, 85; death of, 93 

——, Letitia, 388, 392 ; marriage, 308. 
See Bruce 

Barnardiston, Dr., 64 

Barrington, Sir Jonah, quoted 300, 302-6 

Barrymore, Lady, 65-7 

Bath, 98-100, 276, 373, 388-90 

Bellew, Sir Patrick, 19, 355 

Benet College. See Corpus Christi 

Bentham, Jeremy, 93, quoted 241, 277-9 

Berkeley, Lady, 223, 229 

Berlin, 522 

Bernis, Cardinal de, 177, 
192-3, 404, 413, 423 

Berthier, General, 577-8 

Billington, Mrs., 473 

Bird, John, quoted 31 

Bitio, 125, 142-4, 168-9, 175 

Blenheim, 429 

Blondel, Madame, 190-1, 400 

Borch, Comte de, 186 

Bordeaux, 407-9 

Boswell, quoted 79, 248 

Bourne, Vincent, 11 

Bowdler, Thomas, 221, quoted 221, 230 

Bradstreet, Robert, quoted 467 

Brand, Mrs., 595 

Brecknock, Timothy, quoted 339 

Bristol, Earls of : 

——, John, 1st Earl, 8,9, 10; letters of, 
14-17; a Whig, 21; death of, 19 

——, George, 2nd Earl, 14, 19, 35, 50, 
59; Lord Lieutenant, 84, 91-2; 
death of, 145; statue of, 155, 181 

——, Augustus, 3rd Earl, 222; death 
of, 250 





132,185, 


Bristol, Frederick, 4th Earl. See Bishop 
of Derry 

———, Frederick William, 5th Earl, 643 ; 
quoted 646 


———, Countess of, 252, 284, 376, 429, 
444, 612; death of, 612; will, 613 

Bristol Hotels, 6 

Bristow, Rev., 385 

Brown, “‘ Capability,’’ 281 

Bruce, Henry Hervey, 57, 96, 334, 368, 
638; marriage, 398; SBishop’s 
agent, 427; made his heir, 428 ; 
inherits, 643 

, Mrs. Henrietta, 57, 334 

, Mrs. Letitia, 430, 569, 644 

Brun, Mme. Vigée le, 416, quoted 416 

Brunswick, Duchess of, 415 

Bunbury, Sir William, 61 

Burke, quoted 84 

Burnaby, Rev. Andrew, 78-80, quoted 79 

Burney, Fanny, 280-1 

Burroughs, Rev. Newburg, 477-9, 549; 
differences with, 550-8; death of, 
558 

———, Mrs., 550 

, selina, 588, 634 

Bury St. Edmunds, 35-9; election at, 
35-9, 43-6, 267-8 

—— Carrier, the, 53 

Bute, Lord, 107 

Butson, romantic marriage of Mrs., 
140-2 











CG 

Calais, 391 

Caldwell, Dr., 382-3 

Cambridge, M.A. degree, 49 

Cambridge Chronicle, quoted 94 

Canova, 439 

Carnival in the Corso, 183 

Caroline, Queen, 8 

, Lady Wharncliffe, 231 

Carpenter, Alicia Maria, 17 

Cassis, Count de, 542-4 

Castel Gondolpho, 200-20 

Catherine II., 423-4; death of, 527 

Cavan, Lord, quoted 546 

Chabot, Duc and Duchesse de, 224. 

Chaplain, Court, 73 

to Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 

81, 193 

Charlemont, Lordj:<1,. 2, 293,329, 
quoted 301-16 ; and Irish Volunteers 
340-16, 344, 352 ; sows discord, 344 








660 


Chatham, Earl of, 84-6, 93, 98, 189; 
death of, 202 

Chesterfield, Lord, 9, 80 

Children, birth of, 54, 100 

Chomel, Mlle., 74 

Chudleigh, Miss, 98-100. 

Clarke, Mr., 440 

Clerk of the Privy Seal, 53, 70 

Clermont, Lady, 243 

Cleveland, Duke of, 71 

Cloncurry, Lord, quoted 603, 637, 641-2, 
645 

Cloyne, Bishop of, 85-92 

Cole, William, 14, quoted 19-21, 50, 64, 
71, 89, 94, 104, 250 

Colini, 633 

Congress at Dublin, 354 

Continent, visit to the, 73 

Convention, Irish, 298-316 

Corn, Chevalier de, 552 

Cornwallis, Lady, 226 

Ord) 282,\3'70 

Corpus Christi College, 14, 19, 64 

Corsica, 78-80 

Cowper, II 

Cullum, Mrs., quoted 253-4 

, sir John, 267, 280, 394, quoted 283 

Cunningham, A., quoted 417-8 


See Kingston 








D 


Dalby, Capt., 591 

Dallas, Robert, 479 

Dalmatia, 102, 107, 113-4 

Dampmartin, Colonel, 564, quoted 523, 


547 

D’Anville, 95 

Dartmouth, Earl of, 145 

Davers, family history, 22-4, 70 

, oir Jermyn, 22 

——, Thomas, 71 

——, Sir Robert, 23-4, 40, 50, 59-60, 71 ; 
death of, 71 

——, Harry, 24, 51, 56; death of, 71 

——, Sir Charles, 72, 73, 252, 258, 613, 

628-30, 635; death of, 650 

\\eaOY, 120) 221224 259-4 scandal: 

2I, 71; opposition to marriage, 

22; forgiveness, 40; and Bury 
Elections, 36-7 ; removes to Bury, 
71; death of, 253-5 

———-, Elizabeth, 21; marriage, 21, 26. 
See Hervey 

amen MALY 24, 4ON 7d 

Day, 501 

D.D., Oxford, 1o1 

De Filistri, 559 

Denham, Joseph, quoted 466 

Denis, Mr. and Mrs., 500, 583 

Denne, J., guoted 15 

, Rev. Samuel, 15 

Derry, Bishop of, 93, 258; Art patron- 
age, 187-8, 390, 394, 435-6, 447, 
50I, 503, 576, 637, 645; Liberal 











Index 


Derry, Bishop of—continued. 
views, 97-8, 123, 237-40 ; liberality, 
252, 365, 398, 418; popularity, 
94; becomes Earl of Bristol, 250; 
illnesses, 117-9, 159, 213-6, 222, 
372, 388, 395, 427, 440, 459, 496; 
dress, 230-1, 303, 641; leaves his 
wife, 290; lets his town house, 
290-2; attends Dublin Conven- 
tion, 302-20; ‘‘ Answers,” 321-7, 
342-4; Irish Volunteers, 298-320 ; 
leaves Ireland, 427; leaves Eng- 
land, 445; efforts for unity, 344, 
355; attacks on, 359, 361; and 
Fox, 374; and Lady Hamilton, 
468-76, 480, 483, 493-5; and 
Madame Ritz, 481; and Countess 
Lichtenau, 495, 499, 507, 513-28, 
559; prisoner of the French, 580, 
605; attempted escapes, 582, 605-6, 
his will, 428, 647, 654; death, 642 ; 
burial, 651-2; monument, 652 

——, Bridge at, 95 

Cathedral, spire of, 224, 634 

Colliery, 96 

Commemoration, 409 

——, Freedom of the City, 96 

——, Non-residence in, 545 

Presbytery, Address of, 341 

Presbyterians, 340, 355 

Reception 1790, 420-2 























, Road at, 96 
Devonshire, Elizabeth, Duchess of, 
54, 241 





, Georgiana, Duchess of, 241, 286-8 

Dillon, Colonel, 189-90 

Dillon’s, Colonel, Regiment, 189, 203 

Dillon, Mrs. Charles, 189; quoted 285 

Downhill, 153, 200, 223, 226, 251, 295, 
366, 380, 399 

Drummond, Colin, 252 

Dublin Evening Post, quoted 420 

Dublin Evening News, quoted 93-4 

Durnford, Richard, quoted 457, 460, 465 


E 
‘“‘ Earl Bishop,” the, 251-2 
Edgworth, R. L., quoted 312, 316 
Egremont, Earl of, 17 
Egypt, 542-5, 563 
, Napoleon’s Expedition to, 564 
Eliot, Mr., 529, 651 
Ellis, Charles Rose, 583; marriage, 583 
Encke. See Ritz 
Erne, Countess of, 150, 185, 218, 221, 
224, 231, 259, 264, 285, 367, 392, 394 
, Earl of, 185, 218, 243, 259 
Erskine, Cardinal, 645 
“ Excellent,” 25-6, 40, 42, 54, 61 


EF 








Fabre, 463, 601 
Farquhar, 508 
Feilitzsch, Baroness von, 447 


Index 


Ferney, 104, 234; incident at, 83 
Fitzgerald, George Robert, 310, 3309, 
340; death, 396 

, Lady Mary, 39, 61, 257-8, 388 

Flaxman, 3, 417-9, 438, Fury of Atha- 
mas, 417-8 

Flood, Mr., 299, 306, 312, 355 

Forster, Mr., 138-9 

Fortis, Abbé, 107, 110-I, guoted 112-3, 
143-4, 168, 179, 230 

Foster, John Thomas, 157, 217, 268, 
285, 612. 

——, Mrs. (Elizabeth Hervey), 157, 180, 
193, 257; confinement, 264, 270; 
unhappy marriage, 263-9, 275, 285 ; 
and Duchess of Devonshire, 286, 
444 

Fox, 491 

France, war with, 189, 235-6; 
terms, 243, 289 

——, Revolution in, 419, 445, 463, 476; 
partition scheme, 532; war with 
Austria, 560-2, 572-6, 584-92 

Franco-Prussian War, 486 

Franklin, Benjamin, 235-7, 241, quoted 
236 





peace 


G 


Gainsborough, 283 

Galway Deputation, address of the, 339 
Ganganetti (Pope Clement XIV.), 108-9 
Gentleman’s Magazine, The, quoted 576, 


642 
Geology, interest in, I0I-2, 107, IIo, 
125, 460 
Germain, Lord George, 235, 237, 240 
Germany, travels in, 159-65, 411-6, 
_ 445, 520 
Giant’s Causeway, the, I01-3, 126, 


A2Oy 142) 152 

Gibbon, quoted 288 

Gipps, Sir R., 22 

Glasse, Mr., 65-7 

Goethe, quoted 450 

Gondolpho, Castel, 200-20 

Gordon, Pryse Lockhart, quoted 603 

Gosling, Messrs., 637 

Gouldsbury, Rev., 546, 628-30, 636; 
death, 644 

Grafton, Duke of, 35, 183 

, Duchess of, 54 

Gray, 2, quoted 64, 87 

Gratton, Mr., 298, quoted 395 

Gratton’s ‘“‘ Simple Repeal ”’ 299 





H 

H., Mrs., 361. 

Halliday, Dr., quoted 419 

Hamilton, Sir William, 74-5, 203, 216-7, 
228, 397, 425, 460-76, 493 

——., Lady, 228 

——, Emma, Lady, 6, 425, 468-76, 
493, 500, 548, 562 


661 


Harcourt, death of Lord, 170 

Hart, Captain, 051 

Havelock Ellis, 7 

Hawkesbury, Lady (Louisa Hervey), 

482, 583, 612 

, Lord, 625, 651 

Hervey-Aston, Rev., 334 

Hervey Augustus, 10, 35-8, 58, 61; 
marriage, 98-100; succeeds to 
Earldom, 145. See Bristol 

——, Augustus (natural son of A., 

Earl of Bristol), 251 

, John Augustus, 98, 102, 110, 116-8, 

22A TO2S.) Marriage, e652. 254), 

Lord Hervey, 356, 396-7; in love, 

397; at Florence, 406; recalled, 

452-8, 466; death, 458, 495, 

quoted 117-8, 121 

——, Lady (wife of John Augustus), 
252-3, 257-8, 295, 357, quoted 649 

, General Edmund, 58 

———-, The Hon. Felton, 35-8, 45-6 

—__—, Frederick, contemporary opinions, 
TH 145015). 147-8 30 birth) opiada.,, 
at school, 10, 12; at college, 14, I9 ; 
marriage, 21; family, 4, 8. See 
Bishop of Derry 

——, Mrs. Frederick, 26, 35, 46, 51, 
88, 102, 124, 158, 180, 184, 194, 
213; portraits, 26, 51; illness, 
54; fortune, 59. See Countess of 
Bristol 

———, George, 10, I2, 14, I9. 
of Bristol 

———, George, early death of, 74, 157 

——-, John, Lord, 8, 11, 27; memoirs, 
Q, 251-2, 275 

———, Elizabeth, 74, 78, 103, 124, 151, 
157. See Foster 

——-, Mary, 27, 74, 76, 102, 
Countess of Erne 

——, Lady (Molly Lepel), 8-10, 12, 13, 
22, 80, 83; death, 96; letters, 13, 
49 

———, Mary, 27. See Fitzgerald 

———, Lepel (Mrs. Phipps), Io, 12. 
Mulgrave 

——-, Louisa, 158-9, 168, 183, 194, 201, 
234), '262;).291-2) 376).433. 52 illmess, 
216, 219, 222, 228, 231; marriage, 











See Earl 


124. See 


See 


482, 491, 499-502, 507. See 
Hawkesbury 

——, Rev. Sydenham, 4, 22, 290 

——-, Thomas, 4; pamphlets, 33 

a, William, 267, 281-2 ; journals 


quoted 80-1, 270, 273, 277, 482, 595, 
———, Frederick William, 144, 353, 429, 
453) 487 3 ‘becomes Lord H.. 499, 
612, 625, 642; becomes 5th Earl 
of Bristol, 643. See Bristol 
Hillsborough, Lord, quoted 329 
Hirt, 543, 547 
Holland, Lady. See Webster 
Horringer, 18, 21, 49, 70, 72, 258, 356 


662 


Hotham, Sir W., quoted 474 
Humboldt, A. von, 563, 580, quoted 563. 
Hutchinson, John, 136 


I 


lekworth,3))30) 7 3, .20-Qpeekt 25.042) 
154, 250, 276, 376 ; new house, 
444, 465, 496, 505, 649; Lady 
Bristol at I., 252, 612; Bishop of 
Derry at, 270 

Influenza, 213, 216 

Invasion of Ireland, fears of, 195-9, 211, 
214-5, 235, 238 

Trish Catholics, 108, 124, 133-6, 199, 

203-12, 215, 218 

Convention. See Volunteers 

—__— Leases, 131-3, 155-6, 211, 626 

Politics, 256, 260-1, 344, 373, 565 

Tithes, 131-4, 566 


J 











Jamaica, 242 

Johnson, Dr., 4 

Jones, Thomas, quoted 187-8, 227, 252 
, William, 114, 123-4 





K 


Kauffmann, -Angelica, 
quoted 419 

Kenmare, Lord, 355 

ming George Tih ats) 257, $405," 840 | 
letter, 346 

Kingston, Duke of, 98-9; valet, quoied 


419, 493, 640, 


99 
——, Duchess of, 98-9, 183, 223, 251 


L 


Larchfield, 293-5, 334 

Lausanne, 233-4 

Legal studies, 27, 39 

Leghorn, 78, 561 

Lepel, Molly, 8 

Letters from Frederick Hervey, Bishop 

of Derry : 

To sister Lepel, 54-61, 65-70, 73, 
128-31; to daughter Elizabeth, 
160-2, 164-5, 202, 214, 218, 222-3, 
242, 245, 260, 496, 507-12, 514, 
521, 529, 577; to daughter Mary, 
177, 242-3, 293, 367, 372, 388, 391, 
399, 406-7, 409, 414, 423, 431-7, 438, 
440, 445, 448-50, 464; from Paris 
(1788), 406; on Irish situation, 
2453," from. >Rome’ (1777); 177 ¢ 
from Trieste, 110-2; to brother- 
in-law, 25, 27-35, 36-49, 51, 138-9 ; 
to Lord Dartmouth, 145; to Ed- 
mund Pery, 197-9, 206-11; to 
Hutchinson on education, 136-7; 
to John Strange, 129-31, 135, 142-5, 
150, 16977, sL86,; (220/723 5 eto 
nephew, 125-8; to D’Anville, 95: 


Index 


Letters trom Frederick Hervey, Bishop 
of Derry—continued. 
to Duke of Newcastle, 62-3; to 
Andrew Todd, 391; to John 
Symonds, 371, 505, 518, 578; 
to Mr. Ashby, 394; to Lord Lis- 
burne, 437; to John Beresford, 
442, 452; to Alfieri, 462; to Mr. 
Burroughs, 478, 550; to Robert 
Dallas, 479 ; to the King of Prussia, 
533; to Lord Germain, 235-40 ; 
to Hervey Bruce, 427, 429, 613-5, 
621-3, 626-30, 635, 638; to Arthur 
Young, 295, 367, 369, 447, 593; 
to Day, 501; to Sir W. Hamilton, 
203; 216-7, 425-7; 459-61, 593-5; 
539, 547, 560, 571-5, 58g7 7) t0 
Boswell, 248; to Emma, Lady 
Hamilton, 113, 480, 581, 584, 600 ; 


to Mr. Gouldsbury, 640; to Hirt, 
543; to Colini, 633; to Messrs. 
Peregeaux, 400, 425, 606, 624; 
to Dampmartin, 564; to Lord 
Nelson, 591; to Mr. Wyndham, 
571, Sandys, 584; 


to Lord Liverpool, 597, 616-24, 639 

Letters from Mrs. Hervey : 
To daughter Mary, 76-8, 82, 156, 
162-4, 166-8, 171-6, 200-2, 204-5, 
219-20,: 221) 224, 297, 0244 
daughter Elizabeth, 159-60, 205; 
from Rome, 176-226 ; from Naples, 
227-9 

Letters from Countess of Bristol : 
To daughter Mary, Countess of 
Erne, 253-4, 1257, 259, 261-6, 273, 
284, 378, 453-6; to daughter 
Elizabeth, Mrs. Foster, 274, 286, 
291-3; to the Bishop, 266; to 
Mrs. Strange, 140-1, 170, 175, 231 

Lever, Charles, quoted 403 

Lichtenau, Countess, 2, 488-495, 499- 
597; 513-28, 544, 547; 564 ; arrest, 

_ 559; death, 559 

Lincoln’s Inn, 15, 20 

Lisburne, Earl of, 437 

Liverpool, 1st Lord, 595-9, 616-24, 630 

Lort, Dr., quoted 104, 351, 394 

Lovell, Rev. Trefusis, 445, 505, 525, 530, 
537, 549-50, 628; and Countess 
Lichtenau, 537-9 


575 > cr Mr. 


M 


‘“Madame Montaigne,’’ 120, 142-3, 151, 
167-8, 226 

Malfalguerat, Dr., 25 

Mann, Sir Horace, 173, 231, quoted 396; 
death, 397 

Mansfield, Earl of, 359 

Mant, Bishop, quoted 341 

Marche, Countess Mariana de la, 485, 
499, 502, 506; marriage, 544. 
See Stolberg 


index 


Margravine, the, 424 

Mason, Rev. William, 64, guoted 64 

Masters, Robert, 19 

Maury, Cardinal, 592, 596 

Mausoleum at Downhill, 155 

Maynard, Lady, 183, 221 

Medici, Don Luigi de, 475 

Megginch, 252 

Monino, quoted 108-9 

Montpellier, 83 

Morris, Rev. Edmund, 12, 16 

Morritt of Rokeby, quoted 2, 494 

Mountstuart, Lord, 243 

Moysey, Miss, 99-100 

Mulgrave, 25 

yluady, 12, 2r-2, 128; death, 257 

, Lord, 12;.92, 257-8, 276-7, 379 

Murray, General, 283 

Mussenden, Mrs. 57, 293, 334; scandal 
refuted, 335; death, 336; Temple 
at Downhill, 334, 365 








N 


Naples, 74, 227, 395, 416, 466, 572, 599 
Queen of, 229, 459, 468-76, 483, 

493, 501 

Napper Tandy, 350, 354 

Nesbitt, Mrs., 100, 251, 437 

Neve, Dr., 27, 41, 139 

Newcastle, Duke of, 61-3 

‘‘ Newcastle Turnpikes,”’ the, 60 

Newcomb, Dr., 11 

Newenham, Sir 

quoted 230 

Nomad Bishop, the, 101 

North, Lord, 491 

Northington, Lord, 299, 313, 328-9, 330, 





Edward, 350, 354, 


oor 
O 
O’Neill, Mr., 385-7 
Opie, 284 
Ord, Mr., 60-1 


Orders, decision to take, 47-8 
Ordination, 49 
O’Reilly, Mr. and Mrs., 201-2, 214 


15 
Padua, 571 
Pagoda, a, 411-3 
Paris, 235-7, 241 
Parliamentary Elections, 35-46, 68-70 
Pasquale de Paoli, 79 
Peace of Amiens, 625 
Pelham Papers, quoted 62, 321, 327, 329, 
546, 505 
Penthiévre, Duc de, 411-2 
Peregeaux, Messrs., 409, 412, 425, 006 
Pery, Edmund, 197-9, 206, 256 
Petersham, Lady Caroline, 36 
, Lord, 35 
Phipps, Constantine, 12, 18, 25. 
Mulgrave 





See 





663 


Phipps, Constantine, Captain R.N., 125 
—— Family at Horringer, 54 
——, Lady Lepel, 10-12, 21, 54; 
marriage approved by, 22; birth of 
a child, 25, 41, 58. See Mulgrave 
, William, 55, 60, 61 

See Chatham 
, Thomas, 226, 463 
——, William, 344, 347, 306, 374, 448, 


453, 491, 523, O10, quoted 348 
Plampin, Mrs., 57 


Plymouth, 431 

Poland, Partition of, 448 

Polignac, Vicomte de, 410 

Political situation 1797, 84 

Politics, Papal, 108, 196 

Porter, Anna Maria, 447 

, Rev. Classon, guoted 303, 380, 409 

Preferment, applications for, 61-7, 84-6 

Proby, Rev. Narcissus, 467 

Prussia, King of, 483, 486, 506, 513; 
illness, 502, 519, 547, 524; death, 





Pitt. 





+ Fae rr dr heat 4 Ast, 
——, Frederick William III]., King of, 
559, 564 
Pyrmont, 448, 502, 547, 595 


R 


Recke, Madame de, 527 

Reinhardt, 607 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 283 

Ritz, Madame, 481, 485-8. See Lichtenau 
Rochefoucauld, Francois de la, quoted 


3/7 
Rochford, Lord, 86 
Rome, 107-8, 113, 174-227, 416 
, second sojourn, 230-1 
——, third sojourn, 393 
, fourth sojourn, 465 
Rouen, 123-4 
, Archbishop of, 124 
Rushbrook Hall, 21, 36, 40, 71-2 
Rutland, Duke of, 337, 350, 359, quoled 
337, 345, 359, 352, 350 











S 

Sackville, Lord G., 60, 235, 237. 
Germain. 

Saint-Priest, guoled 108-9 

St. Bernard Monastery, 104-6 

St. Columbkill, 384 

Salis, Count de, 106-7, 116-22 

Sandys, Francis, 478, 554 

, Rev. J., 478, 554, 569 

Sans Souci, 521 

Saurin, Mr., 381 

Savary, M. de, 542 

Saxe-Gotha, Prince Augustus of, 164-7, 
177, 201, quoted 41l. 

Scawronski, Countess, 427 

Secondat, M. de, 425 

Seume, guoted 607 


See 





664 


Shanahan, 103, Ifo, 117-8, 154, 211, 
634, quoted 223, 2960-7, 401 

Shelburne, Lord, 93, 139, 235, 241, 247, 
278-9, 288 ; resignation, 299 

Shelley, Lady, quoted 105 

Sherlock, Martin, 3, 234-5, 271, quoted 
271-2 

Siena, 460 

Skelton, Rev. Philip, 89-90 

Smith, Sir Robert, 14 

Smyth, Hervey, 56 

Somerset House, 283 

Southwell, Lord, 269 

Spa, 74 

Spanish War, the, 419 

Spencer, Lord and Lady, 241 

Sposino, 491 

Staffa, 152 

Stair, 5th Earl of, 383 

‘“ State-Control’’ scheme, 593 

Stollberg, Count F. von, 545 

Stollberg, Countess von, 545 

Stormont, Lord, 441 

Strange, John, 101, 103, 107, 110-2, 

$27; 231 

, Mrs., 110, 120, 140, 170, 175, 231 

Stuart, Lady Louisa, 9 

Sydney, Lord, 337, 357, quoled 357-8 

Symonds, John, 280, 371, 394 





it 


Tatham, C. H., quoted 465 

Templetown, Lord, 486, 499 

Tesse, Madame de, 180 

Test: Act) the. .134-6. 
abolished, 257 

Thomond, Earl of, 65-7 

Todd, Andrew, 391 

Torelli, Giuseppe, 119-22 

Torlonia, Duke of, 646, 649 

Town and Country Magazine, quoted 
251, 361 

Townshend, Thomas, Lord, 
See Sydney $# 

Treaty of Peace, 289 

Trieste, 110-2 

Turgot, 235 


206-10, 256; 


18, 93. 





Index 


U 
Ulster Presbyterians, the, 256-7 
Union of Ireland with England, 247, 
610, 640 
Upton, Elizabeth, 487, 499, 507 


Vv 


Valdagno, 167-9 

Valisnieri, Antonio, 119, 124 

Van Oost, 155, 181 

Venice, 80, 169-70, 539 

Verona, 166-7 

Vesuvius, Mount, 74-6, 186, 204, 416, 

_ 475 

Vienna, 114-5 

Vincent, Mrs., 454 

Voltaire, 83, 104, 190, 271 ; death, 204 

Volunteer Movement, the Irish, 214, 
256-7, 298-330, 351, 421; decline 
of, 352 

Volunteers, Convention of Irish, 300-19 

Voyer, Madame de, 190 


WwW 


Walpole, Horace, 105, quoted 1, 91, 100, 
223, 231, 237, 251, 282, 287, 300 ; 
correspondence with Sir H. Mann, 


317-9, 355 

Webster, Lady, guoted 453, 456, 491, 
582, 606 

Wesley, John, 146-7, quoted 1, 146, 


402 
Whitaker, John, 435, 439, quoted'439 
Whitaker’s ‘“‘Mary Queen of Scots,’ 


435 
Wilmot, Catherine, guoted 640 | 
Wolfe, death of, 56 
Woronzoff, General, 201. 
Wiirtemburg, Prince Ferdinand of, 413 
, Princess Eugene, 413 
Wyndham, Mr., 571-2, 603 


x 
Young, Arthur, 280-1, quoted 80, 95, 
152-3, 280-2, 288, 416, 444, 649 





WANN 


1012 01027 4795 





